By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Narre Warren South man who pleaded guilty to knowingly possessing pornography of adults with children under 10 is appealing against his four-month jail term.
Dean Meyer, 36, also pleaded guilty at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court to making sexually-explicit phone calls to five dance studios about girls featured on their websites between March 2014 and June 2017.
One of the victims received four phone calls from Meyer, enquiring in graphic detail whether he could have sex with her daughter.
The conversations made the complainants anxious, afraid and shaken, magistrate Jack Vandersteen noted on 30 July.
Police discovered 16 images and six videos of child-abuse material found on a computer tower, hard drive and DVD disk seized from Meyer’s home in October.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said he was concerned that Meyer offered no explanation for his offending.
Meyer told a psychiatrist about being significantly bullied as a child, including being raped by three people at school – though that was unsubstantiated, Mr Vandersteen noted.
“Why did he ring these people? Why did he possess the child pornography?” Mr Vandersteen asked defence lawyer Farah Banihali.
“I assume you asked him the same questions, and the psychiatrist as well.
“There’s a brick wall.”
Mr Vandersteen said there was a need to deter similar offenders from possessing such “terrible” child pornography.
“There’s very much a need to protect children from adult interference,” Mr Vandersteen said.
“They never should be exploited in such a way. None of them at all deserve to be violated and offended against by adults.
“You’re part of the process. If people didn’t possess it, it would be unlikely that this child abuse material would be produced.”
Meyer was jailed for four months followed by a 12-month community corrections order with mental health and sex-offender programs.
He was ordered to report to Victoria Police for the next eight years as a registered sexual offender.
Meyer soon after indicated that he would appeal against the sentence.
He was bailed to appear at the Victorian County Court on 21 September.
As part of his bail, Meyer must report to police three times a week, live in a fixed abode, not access the Internet other than for work and banking purposes, and have no contact with under-18s.
