During the man’s application for bail, the court was told he faced six other charges with “exactly the same circumstances as the offending on this occasion”, where it is alleged he connected with five different “women and girls” on dating apps or Snapchat and arranged to meet up with them.
Prosecutors told the court the man had been on bail during the most recent alleged offending – a condition of his bail being that he must not access social media or any dating apps.
“He already has a bail condition preventing him from using social media apps, and he’s blatantly disregarding that and breaching that condition,” the prosecution said.
“It is the prosecution’s submission that home detention would be inappropriate, as it would not stop him from meeting people on dating sites – home detention would only allow us to monitor him leaving his premises, not people going to his premises.
“There is a very serious risk that this defendant will reoffend in the same manner, and it is my submission that he poses an unacceptable risk to young people in the community for him to be able to any form of bail.
“There is possibly a secondary victim which has yet to be identified and we have concerns that he may approach her.”
The man’s lawyer told the court all charges were being contested, but he conceded accessing social media while prohibited from doing so was “foolish of him”.
“He accepts the breach of bail, and he accepts that it was foolish of him to breach his bail and download social media,” she said.
“He will be prepared to comply with any further conditions of bail that he not access any internet.
“I do note that these matters were only reported on the 11th of May, which is yesterday, and I do note that the alleged offending is alleged to have occurred in April.
“Given the way these events are described by the complainant, we find it rather strange and unbelievable that the matter was not immediately reported to police given that others were immediately made aware of the alleged rape.”
Magistrate Stefan Metanomski agreed the man posed a risk to the community.
“He has breached his bail by way of similar offending and numerous allegations of very serious offending,” he said.
“Females in the community may be at some risk.
“In all those circumstances, it is my view that bail is inappropriate.”
The man will return to court in August.
