Reporting fail lands offender with jail stint

FAILING to comply with obligations under the Child Protection (reportable offender) Act was a very serious offence as a Toowoomba man has found out.

Mathew Luke Tillack had been subject to a reportable offender order since April 2009, Toowoomba Magistrates Court heard yesterday.

The order included a number of compulsory compliance measures including having to report regularly to police, participate in quarterly reviews by police and report any change of address or employment or to having any contact with children within 24 hours of that change.

However, police had found out that in January the 31-year-old had moved in with a 37-year-old woman friend who had a 16-year-old daughter living with her, neither fact of which he had reported to police.

He told police he thought he only had to report contact with children under 16, the court heard.

He also told police he hadn’t reported that he had been temporarily living with the woman as he didn’t want to “drag her into it”.

Tillack had also given false details to police, telling officers he was residing at a Newtown address when he was staying with his girlfriend in another suburb.

He had also failed to report that he had stayed two nights at a friend’s home in Kearneys Spring where his friend and his friend’s partner had a 20-month-old child which he admitted playing with, the court heard.

Tillack appeared by video link from the prison to plead guilty to four counts of failing to comply with his obligations under the order.

Magistrate Graham Lee noted the defendant had “an unenviable” eight-page criminal history and that the offending was “very serious”.

“This is a most disturbing case, in my view, given your history,” Mr Lee said.

“You well know what your reporting obligations are.”

Mr Lee declared 72 days pre-sentence custody as time served and sentenced Tillack to 15 months in jail.

He will be eligible to apply for release on parole as of September 11.

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This is a most disturbing case, in my view, given your history.

— Magistrate Graham Lee