sentence — using a carriage service to procure a person under age of 16 years to engage in sexual activity offence contrary to s 474.26(1) of the Commonwealth Criminal Code, using a carriage service to transmit indecent communication to person under age of 16 years offence contrary to s 474.27A of Commonwealth Criminal Code — additional state summary offences uplifted to County Court from Magistrates’ Court — guilty plea — s 16A(2)(g) — early pleas of guilty which have significant utilitarian value, particularly as criminal trials have been suspended from March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic — pleas show willingness to facilitate the course of justice and have saved the time and expense of a trial — nature and circumstances of the offence — s 16A(2)(a) — Court accepts offending occurred in context of low period of offender’s life following break-up of relationship and in context of offender having struggled on and off with anxiety and depression over some 20 years — offender not medicated for anxiety and depression during period of offending but relied upon increased usage of alcohol — this can never excuse such offending — offender should be in no doubt about the seriousness of offending — offences are prevalent and difficult to detect — notwithstanding undercover police officer recipient charge 1, offence is no less serious than if the person had in fact been a child — offending only ceased because victim ceased responding to offender and because offender was arrested respectively — though deeply concerning, offending not as extensive in gravity as one often sees in these types of cases — no aggravating features of bullying or intimidating conduct or threats to blackmail a child with indecent photographs of themselves — used own name and number, demonstrating not experienced, sophisticated predator upon children — general deterrence — s 16A(2)(ja) — emphasis must be placed upon general deterrence so that others who are minded to act in a way that debases children by crudely treating them as sexual play things before they have the maturity to deal with such conduct will know that they will be appropriately punished — specific deterrence — s 16A(2)(j) — specific deterrence as offending overall took place over 2.5 months — concerning lack of response from the person with whom you were communicating on charge 1 coincides with you beginning to communicate with your victim on charge 2 — contrition — s 16A(2)(f)(ii) — offender somewhat minimised offending stating they “got sucked in by the undercover operative” and nowhere has offender acknowledged potential adverse impact of offending upon victims — although offender accepted responsibility for offending by pleading guilty and sentencing judge accepted offender truly ashamed and has some remorse, offender should undertake a Sex Offenders Program to increase insight — to offender’s credit they expressed willingness to undertake such offence specific treatment — character — s 16A(2)(m) — no prior criminal history — nature of this serious offending is such that less weight given to prior good character than might otherwise be the case — rehabilitation — s 16A(2)(n) — mental condition — s 16A(2)(m) — lack of prior offending relevant to prospects of rehabilitation — excellent vocational history and close supportive family — since offender voluntarily engaged in counselling and compliant with mood stabilising medication — together with reduction of alcohol intake, resulted in Persistent Depressive Disorder with anxious distress moving into early remission — in sentencing judge’s view, that is significant rehabilitative step which gives Court some comfort offender likely to have good prospects of rehabilitation — hardship to the offender — given offender 41 years old with no prior or subsequent involvement in criminal activity never served immediate custodial sentence, sentencing judge considered offender will find serving term of imprisonment challenging — likely to have far more punitive effect upon offender who has suffered long term psychological fragility in terms of anxiety and depression — sentencing judge held very real fears offender is type of person who may well be crushed by a prison environment if incarcerated for significant time, not only may their mental health deteriorate but rehabilitative gains offender have made may be lost — COVID-19 — offender taken into custody for the first time during more onerous conditions of imprisonment during the COVID-19 pandemic — offender endured 14 days of isolation, and prisoners were locked in their cells for 23 hours each day following detection of an active case of COVID-19 in order to try to contain the spread of the virus — offender’s prison is one of two prisons which remains in lockdown indefinitely — onerous way to serve imprisonment — availability of rehabilitative programs in custody very significantly reduced and face-to-face programs are almost non-existent — from 8 July Victoria under lockdown and at time of imposing sentence there is no end in sight for more onerous conditions of imprisonment associated with the pandemic — aware that a medication offender was taking to manage psychological state is not prescribed in prison and likely offender will need period of readjustment — sentence — imposed 23 months’ imprisonment to be released after serving period of 4 months upon recognisance release order — s 6AAA — but for guilty plea, would have imposed 4 years’ imprisonment with a 3 year non-parole period
