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AAP
National
Emily Woods

Pedophile abuses kids on Snapchat after early release

The 56-year-old man preyed on girls using social media, the County Court heard. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)

A pedophile targeted girls through social media, telling an 11-year-old he wanted to get her pregnant, months after he was released from prison for good behaviour.

Darryl King, 56, faced the County Court in Melbourne by video link on Wednesday, after violating his good behaviour bond by sending explicit messages, videos and photos to three girls.

He was released from prison in May 2022 after serving 328 days of a 20-month prison term for accessing, soliciting and possessing child abuse material.

King was ordered to be of good behaviour for three-and-a-half years after his release and to attend sex offender treatment.

But within months he began searching online for "social media apps for kids" and "Snapchat for kids", prosecutor Holly Baxter told the court.

He contacted an 11-year-old girl on Snapchat in September 2022 and told her "daddy wants to get you pregnant, I'm going to take your virginity at 11-years-old".

He then sent explicit messages to two more girls, aged under 16, and asked them to send him photos in return for "$65 million".

"It's our little secret, you are my perfect type of girl," he told them.

King also sent a photo of people having sex and masturbated in front of the two girls over a video call.

He pleaded guilty to three charges, including engaging in sexual activity using a carriage service with two girls aged under 16, and admitted to violating his good behaviour bond.

Psychologist Michael Davis, who had assessed King, said he was driven by "daddy dom, little girl fantasies".

"I think he spends a lot of time lost in his own fantasy world," he told the court.

He said King's attraction to skinny, adult women and his fantasy as a "daddy dom" had "morphed" into his sexual interest for children.

His barrister, Morgan Brown, said physical sexual contact with children was much worse than chatting to them online.

"Whilst sexual activity was engaged in, it was not being engaged in by the victims," she said.

The grandmother of one of the victims said she takes the girl's phone each night to monitor who she is communicating with.

"Every night I go through her phone when she is asleep," she said, in a statement read to court.

She lives in constant fear that another predator will contact the child using social media.

One of the victims' mothers said King reminded her daughter of Dumbledore, a character in Harry Potter, and that watching movies now triggered the child.

The family was frightened of King being released on bail due to threats he'd sent to the girl in messages, she said in a statement.

King will be sentenced at a later date.

Lifeline 13 11 14

beyondblue 1300 22 4636

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028

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