Man raped 14-year-old girl, groomed children over phone app

CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to child abuse.

A young man who raped a 14-year-old girl and groomed several other children over a mobile phone app has been sentenced.

The offender, now aged 23, pleaded guilty to charges of sexual intercourse with a young person and using a carriage service to groom a person under 16.

He was handed one year and 17 days’ jail to be served via an intensive corrections order (ICO), which is a community-based sentence, when he was sentenced by the ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday (27 November).

Justice Verity McWilliam said in 2023, the man had been using the mobile phone application ‘Wizz’, which allows users to message random people around the same age. However, while he was actually 21, he set his age as 14.

From that May to July, he groomed several girls aged between 13 and 15, whose ages were clearly displayed on the app.

His messages included, “[How] you doing btw your hot”, “We should hook up”, “I’m easy but like we should definitely make out”, and, “Can we chill together tonight?”

Then, in July 2023, he used the app to start talking to a 14-year-old girl. She had her age displayed on her profile, and she was told the man was 17.

He said he wanted to meet up to smoke “pot” and she met him in the early hours of the morning before he drove her back to his home.

There, he smoked cannabis, although she declined. She said she froze after he became “really touchy” and started touching her body without asking for consent.

Justice McWilliam said when he started touching the girl again later on, the girl felt scared and unable to do anything as she was frozen.

“She felt hopeless, like the offender had full control of her,” the judge said.

The girl eventually said, “I don’t know if I’m okay with this”, but he continued to touch her.

He then raped her until she told him to stop. Afterwards, he drove her home, and when she woke up in the morning, she told her mother what had happened.

“I want to die because I feel so gross. I want to scrub off all my skin,” the girl said.

Her mother told the court her daughter was “now just a scared, heartbroken little girl trying to numb her pain in a big bad world”.

“The offence has started a spiral of self-destruction for her daughter, and she is helpless to bring her daughter out of that state,” Justice McWilliam said.

She said the offender deliberately set his birth year as 2008 on the app in order to connect with people aged between 13 and 15 and he knew the girl was 14.

The judge also said the girl “did communicate her ambivalent state of mind” because she said, “I don’t know if I’m okay with this”. He continued despite this comment.

She did note that when the girl eventually said stop, he did stop.

Justice McWilliam said the man has a range of complex medical conditions, including level 3 autism and developmental disabilities, while his learning, memory, attention and literacy are at the level of a 14 to 16-year-old. For this reason, Region has decided not to name the offender.

She accepted his cognitive impairment was causally connected to his offending, partly as he was not functioning at the maturity level of an ordinary 21-year-old, and his impairment caused an inability to perceive what was being communicated by the girl verbally and through her frozen body language.

The judge said he had no prior criminal history, was genuinely remorseful, and was “prepared to find that this was isolated behaviour that will never be repeated”.

The prosecution submitted that an ICO was appropriate.

“I consider that the imposition of an ICO still recognises the seriousness of the offences, but is better able to accommodate the offender’s particular circumstances, the objectives of rehabilitation and [legal principals],” Justice McWilliam said.

His ICO will end in December 2025, and its conditions include attending educational, psychological or other programs as directed.

If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT 02 6280 0900, the Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call Triple Zero.