Oz man appeals against jail sentence for toe sucking

MELBOURNE - A man in Australia has appealed against a jail sentence that was given to him after he became a toe sucking “slave” to a teenage “foot master”.

Channa Wickremesekera, 43, a former Melbourne teacher, is said to have committed indecent acts with the boy, 14, who had advertised on YouTube for someone to “worship” his feet, the Age reported.

The County Court heard Wickremesekera had a foot fetish, was “sexually submissive” and “gains sexual gratification from worshipping male feet that he considers to be beautiful”.

Prosecutor Catharine Sedgwick said the pair conversed in 2009 via MSN chat sessions and later met in secluded bushland where he gave the victim 50 dollars and his socks to “worship” (kiss) them at home on webcam.

Sedgwick said at a second meeting Wickremesekera removed the boy’s shoes and socks and kissed his feet before kissing his toes.

At three further meetings he sucked some of the victim’s toes and gave him a new pair of Converse All Stars shoes and 10 pairs of sock for the boy to wear and dirty.

Wickremesekera, who had pleaded guilty to charges that included two counts of committing an indecent act, appealed to Judge Damian Murphy against the severity of an 18-month sentence, with a minimum of 10 months, imposed by a magistrate last October.

His barrister, Sean Cash, said Wickremesekera was “totally submissive” to the boy, who had advertised he was looking for a slave.

Cash, who said his client told the boy he was not interested in “intimate touching”, submitted it was “quite unusual to get jail for an act of indecency that does not involve touching”.

He said that kissing or sucking someone’s toes “in terms of a level of indecency is hardly very indecent … it’s just unusual or perhaps unpalatable for us to the deal with”.

The victim had subjected his client to “great temptation (and) this temptation he yielded to which put him in a situation where he was extraordinarily tempted”.

Forensic psychologist Elizabeth Warren gave evidence that Wickremesekera’s abnormal sexual behaviour was classified as paraphilia.

Warren said he had personality characteristics of acquiescence and passivity, but he never sought out children.

She commented that the case was unusual and did not have the facets of coercion, predation or physical harm and “he’s not a high-risk dangerous, predatory or violent person”.

Judge Murphy adjourned his appeal decision to have Wickremesekera assessed for a specialist sexual offenders’ program that will partly investigate reoffending. (ANI)