Australia : Man duped girls for sex, court told
Man duped girls for sex, court told
Melissa Iaria
Mon Sep 24 2012
A loner recruited young women for sex by duping them into believing they were auditioning for a job with an adult sex service, a court has been told.
Steve Onnis, 36, would trawl room-share websites daily for young, attractive girls to draw into the scam, the Victorian County Court heard on Monday.
He later admitted to police he was lonely and it was the "only way he could have sexual intercourse with beautiful girls".
Onnis pleaded guilty to six charges of procuring sexual penetration by fraud and one of attempting to procure sexual penetration by fraud.
His six victims were aged between 16 and 20.
The court heard Onnis posed as a woman called Melanie and sent the girls a text message, asking them to contact him by Skype or msn messaging if they wanted to make money.
During the online conversations, he played a recorded video with Melanie who was supposedly from an adult sex service, to dupe the girls into believing he was her.
He encouraged the girls to expose themselves and perform sex acts pretending it was part of their audition to work for her.
Onnis filmed the girls without their knowledge and then said they had to meet with a scout from the company to ensure they were right for the job.
Onnis then met the girls posing as the scout and engaged in sexual acts, filming the encounters.
He made his victims sign a fake consent form and offered his first victim $500 to perform the acts but never paid.
The court heard Onnis admitted contacting more than 100 girls for the scam.
Even after he was charged, he contacted a girl on a classifieds website with a similar offer to make money, but the girl was actually one of his previous victims.
Prosecutor Brett Sonnet said the crimes were serious, planned and targeted at young females.
Mr Sonnet said the victims would never have become involved if they'd known Melanie wasn't real and the job offer was a scam.
One victim feared images of her may end up on the internet.
"I was humiliated and lost trust in my own judgment," she said in a statement read in court.
"Steve used my body to get pleasure for his own enjoyment.
"I'm hurt and I'm living in fear that my future could be ruined by this."
Another victim wrote of her anger, hatred and shame.
Defence barrister Brendan Wilkinson said Onnis was lonely, working from home and had drifted into a world where the internet became his social life.
He agreed his client's crimes were serious but noted he had cooperated with police.
Judge Mark Gamble said general deterrence would be an important sentencing factor given it was a crime that can easily go undetected because victims may feel ashamed to come forward.
Onnis, of Malvern East, was remanded into custody for sentencing on October 10.
news.ninemsn.com.au
