A Tasmanian man will spend the next 12 months behind bars for child grooming and perverting justice after being caught by a police catfishing operation conducted in 2020.
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Andre Charles Lee, 46, was sentenced in Launceston via video link on Friday to 18 months imprisonment, with six months suspended.
His charges included grooming with intent to expose a child to indecent material, distribution of child exploitation material and perverting the course of justice. He pled guilty to the charges in November last year.
The charges relate to an undercover police operation in 2020 when a specialised anti-child exploitation unit set up an account on the social platform Kik posing as a 15-year-old girl from Adelaide named Jess.
On February 16 that year, Lee contacted 'Jess' and began sending sexual messages as well as child exploitative and pornographic videos.
He encouraged 'Jess' to perform sexual acts and openly contemplated flying to Adelaide to have sex with her. When the officer posing as 'Jess' messaged to say her mother was in the room, Mr Lee urged 'Jess' not to say anything.
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"I beg you. I'm putting my life and freedom in your hands," he messaged.
Lee would continue to groom who he thought was a 15-year-old girl until police passed the information to a joint anti-child exploitation team, which conducted a search warrant at Lee's home some days later, seizing his phone in the process.
The phone was discovered to contain dozens of images and videos depicting child exploitation as well as bestiality.
When taken in for questioning, Lee claimed he did not know Jess was 15 and said he believed the conversation had been a "roleplay".
After being released by police, however, Lee set up a new Kik account posing as a man named Tony Hall and re-contacted the catfish account, still believing at the time that Jess was a real person.
Using the new account, Lee told 'Jess' that "Andre got charged". He then encouraged 'Jess' to contact Hobart police to inform them she was 17 years old and tell them the whole thing was "a big misunderstanding".
In his sentence, Justice Gregory Geason raised particular concerns about Lee's attempt to pervert the course of justice, noting that "placing pressure on victims is itself a serious crime".
That charge alone contributed six months to the 18-month sentence handed down by Justice Geason, though six months of that sentence was suspended leaving Mr Lee with 12 months imprisonment and no parole granted.
Lee will also spend the next 12 years on the sex offenders register.
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