A Sri Lankan student in Melbourne, Australia who was arrested on charges of threatening underage girls to send him child abuse material has been issued a prison sentence.
He was sentenced to 13 years and six months in jail, when he faced the Victorian County Court yesterday.
He was arrested in 2020 while he was a university student.
He pled guilty to 25 child abuse material offences relating to six girls aged 11 to 17, including four in the United States, one in the United Kingdom and one in Australia, from November 2018 to June 2020.
He used social media apps such as Kik, Omegle, Snapchat and Instagram to connect with the girls online.
He used several fake aliases, would often say he was a teenager, and usually followed through with his threats to share the child abuse material with the girls’ friends or followers.
He must serve at least eight years and six months in prison before he is eligible for parole.
At the conclusion of his prison sentence he will be deported to Sri Lanka.
