A Trevallyn man exchanged obscene messages with a 14-year-old girl after befriending her via the online game World Warcraft, the Supreme Court in Launceston heard.
Humzah Jamal El-Rez, 26, pleaded guilty to a count of using a carriage service to transmit child pornography in August 2017 and using a carriage service to publish child exploitation material on September 5 and September 6, 2017.
Commonwealth prosecutor Rose Bollard said El-Rez originally played the role-playing game with Skye-Ann and it developed into a lewd conversation.
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El-Rez, then 22, told police that he thought the girl was 15-16 years old.
Ms Bollard said the girl, who lived in the United States, sent El-Rez a picture of her torso from the waist down after he asked for an image of her 'flower'.
"The image was sent and he admitted to police that he had obtained sexual gratification from it," she said.
She said the maximum sentence for the offence was 15 years although the course of conduct was over two weeks.
She said the text-based conversation was graphic and offensive and comprised child pornography.
She said El-Rez was reckless as to the age of the victim.
"These type of offences are difficult to detect and have become increasingly prevalent because of the internet," she said. There was no victim impact statement.
Defence counsel James Oxley said El-Rez's mental health had been poor at the time of the offences.
"He was spending much of his waking hours playing computer games online," he said.
Mr Oxley said the link between the pair had begun with the online game in which people could talk and text before it moved onto Facebook.
Justice Michael Brett asked whether El-Rez had done anything to check the girl's age.
"Not on my instructions, no," Mr Oxley said.
Mr Oxley said El Rez had been the one to break off contact.
Justice Brett said he suspected his sentence would be a term of imprisonment saying there were some concerning aspects of culpability.
El-Rez will be sentenced on April 1 at 10am.
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Nick Clark
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
