A NORTHERN Tasmanian man who tried to procure his friend's intellectually disabled under-age daughter for sex has been handed a wholly suspended sentence in the Supreme Court in Launceston.
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The 28-year-old, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, pleaded guilty on Friday to having communicated with the girl on Facebook with intent to procure her for an unlawful sexual act in early 2014.
Crown prosecutor Luke Brett said the victim, then 14, suffered from a condition which caused her to have a low IQ and difficulties with identifying risky behaviour.
Mr Brett said the girl was living in foster care and visited her family home, where she met the man and he became her friend on Facebook.
The prosecutor said the girl told the man her real age and he bombarded her with numerous Facebook messages of a sexually suggestive nature.
Defence counsel Charmaine Gibson, in her plea in mitigation, said it was never her client's intention to engage in sexual conduct with an under-age girl.
"You're skating very close to undermining your client's plea of guilty," Justice Stephen Estcourt said.
Justice Estcourt jailed the man for three months, wholly suspended for two years, and fined him $500.
