Oz man first to be convicted in ’sexting’ case involving nude 13-yr-old girl

SYDNEY - An Australian man has landed in the centre of the country’s first ’sexting’ case after a 13-year-old schoolgirl sent a nude photo of herself to his mobile phone.

Damien ‘Ezzy’ Eades, 20, from Sydney’s western suburbs, now faces a maximum penalty of two-years jail term.

In March 2008, Eades, then 18, was working at a KFC outlet when he exchanged text messages with a 13-year-old girl with whom he had become friends.

In the text he had sent her, he wrote: “When am I going to get a picture. I send you one if you send me one a hot steamy one,” the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The girl replied: “OK well when I get home I take one Hey did you get the one I sent the other day.”

She then sent a full frontal photograph of herself naked which she had taken holding her mobile in her hand.

When the girl’s father checked her mobile phone, he went to the police.

Eades was charged with incitement of a person under 16 to commit an act of indecency towards him. He was also charged with possession of child pornography.

But when the matter came before Magistrate Daniel Reiss at Penrith Local Court in March last year, the magistrate dismissed both charges.

Reiss said that the photo itself was not indecent and that he was not able to take into account the background context of the text messages, which he noted did suggest “a sexual aspect behind his request”.

The magistrate also said there was no evidence that the relationship ever progressed beyond friendship.

The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed over the “act of indecency” charge, the penalty for which is up to two years in jail.

Justice Greg James of the Supreme Court ruled that the magistrate had erred and should have taken into account the sexual nature of the text messages, Eades’s intention, as well as the age difference between him and the girl.

Justice James referred the matter back to the Local Court to be heard again.

Eades’s legal team appealed, but last month the NSW Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and ordered him to pay costs. (ANI)