Chicken shop worker Corey Mcconnell sentenced for grooming girl over Snapchat
Written by admin on August 24, 2024
EXCLUSIVE
A 28-year-old man who pleaded guilty to grooming a 14-year-old girl via Snapchat will be eligible for parole in just two months after being sentenced for his crimes.
Chicken shop worker Corey Mcconnell faced the NSW District Court on Tuesday where his messages to the schoolgirl were read out in open court.
Mcconnell was arrested after the girl’s mother found out the pair were communicating.
The mother called him twice, asking him to stop messaging her daughter, reminding him that it was “inappropriate and illegal” and that it was “negatively impacting” the teenager.
The court heard Mcconnell told her: “Yeah I know I’ll stop” but continued messaging the girl before the mum went to the police.
During a search warrant, Mcconnell was found to have recorded dozens of videos of “mutual masturbation” between the pair as well as nude photos of the girl.
He was charged and later pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to groom a child under 16 years, using a carriage service to access child abuse material, using a carriage service to engage in sexual activity with a child and possessing child abuse material.
The court heard Mcconnell told the girl she “looked beautiful” after she sent a selfie, showing him she had just gotten her braces off.
In one message, Mcconnell accused the girl of trying to “hurt” him after she added a boy from her English class on Snapchat.
Mcconnell also told the girl he had “risked” his life for her and said he would “never lose interest” in her.
When the girl told him they would “see each other” when she turned 18, he asked her: “Are we going to stay in touch or become strangers?”
During his sentence on Tuesday, Judge Clive Jeffreys said the girl told police in April 2021 that she had been speaking to Mcconnell for 18 months on Snapchat and had “exchanged nude photographs”.
She was 14 and 15 at the time.
The court heard from a psychologist who wrote Mcconnell was an “emotionally immature individual” who suffered from “social anxiety”.
“Because a child can access and navigate the internet without the supervision of a responsible adult, the opportunity for a sexual predator to identify a potential victim is significant,” Judge Jeffreys said in his sentencing.
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Judge Jeffreys sentenced Mcconnell to four years and seven months in jail, with a non-parole period of two years and four months.
However, Judge Jeffreys backdated the sentence to the date of his arrest, meaning he will be eligible for parole on October 29 this year.
The court heard a friend of Mcconnell’s would be hiring him as a full-time operator in the mines upon release from custody.
