A school bus driver from Western Australia's South West has been found guilty of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl after messaging her on social media and offering to be her "sugar daddy".
Cleve Maynard Pain, 52, had been on trial in the District Court for the past week, accused of sending the teenager a sexually explicit video of himself via Snapchat, before arranging to pick her up from a friend's house and taking her back to his house for sex.
The court heard Pain told the girl during the car journey to wear a blindfold so she could not see where she was taken and when they arrived at his home he gave her $200.
It was alleged that during their interaction on social media, Pain offered to help the girl with money and told her he could be her "sugar daddy" in exchange for sex.
Days after the abuse, the girl was taken to police by her mother and an investigation began.
Defence argued teen was lying
Pain denied all the allegations against him, and argued the girl was telling lies.
He admitted sending the sexually explicit video of himself to the girl, but maintained she had led him to believe she was over the age of 16.
He testified she had on one occasion come to his house, but insisted the allegations of sexual abuse were false.
Pain said he communicated with the girl on social media because she had repeatedly complained about her home life and her family and he felt sorry for her and wanted to offer help and advice.
Immediate jail term likely inevitable: Judge
The jury deliberated for about three-and-a-half hours before finding him guilty of one charge of using electronic communication to procure a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity and two counts of sexually penetrating a child under 16.
Pain was acquitted of a fourth charge of possessing child exploitation material – which related to photographs found in a deleted folder on his mobile phone of the girl in her underwear.
His lawyer told the court the photographs, which were "selfies" the girl had taken and put on her social media account, could not be considered indecent.
Pain was remanded in custody until he faces a sentencing hearing next month.
Judge Bruce Goetze told him it was likely "inevitable' that he would receive an immediate jail term.
