Cop sent sexually explicit messages to underage girl
A veteran Canterbury police officer sent sexually explicit messages to an underage girl on social media, including a photo of him in tight shorts saying “this is what you do to me”.
Dean William Murray, 46, quit the force in 2023 after police fielded a complaint from the 15-year-old’s parents and launched a criminal investigation.
On Friday at Christchurch District Court, after earlier admitting a charge of indecent communication with a young person, he was discharged without conviction.
According to the summary of facts, Murray “happened upon” the teenager’s Instagram account in February 2023 and began looking at images of her, one of which showed her wearing a bikini.
Without asking her age, he sent her a sexually explicit message commenting on the photo and describing how he wanted to have sex with her. The police officer of 23 years then sent her the photo of himself in tight shorts, the summary says.
Murray continued to have intimate online communications with the victim over several weeks until the girl offered to send him intimate pictures for $20. He deposited the money into her bank account, in exchange for the pictures. Two days later, the victim was suspended from school due to behavioural issues. Her parents confiscated her phone, found the messages and reported the matter.
When spoken to by police, Murray admitted what he’d done, and said he’d never considered how old the girl was.
At Friday’s court hearing, defence lawyer Kerry Cook said his client “held an honest belief” the victim was of a legal age.
Murray pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and “should’ve known better, should’ve done better”, Cook said.
The “genuinely remorseful” former police officer had previous good character, no criminal convictions and had taken rehabilitative steps, the lawyer said.
Murray had offered to pay $1500 reparation to the victim and meet her as part of restorative justice.
Cook said the offending was “a mistake, an honestly made one”. He sought a discharge without conviction, saying a black mark on Murray’s criminal record would have “catastrophic” consequences for his future job prospects.
Acting for police, lawyer Penny Brown said Murray’s offending involved harm to a teenage girl. “That harm was caused by the defendant’s desire to satisfy his own sexual needs.”
In their victim impact statements, the “vulnerable” teen’s parents wrote about the escalation of her mental health issues and the difficulties they’d faced grappling with the fallout, Brown said.
"The defendant, a former police officer, would be well aware of the risks that online behaviours pose to young people and nonetheless ignored those risks and failed to take reasonable steps that he should've to ensure the person he was communicating with ... was of an appropriate age."
Police believed the offending was “moderately serious”, and submitted the potential consequences of a conviction did not outweigh the seriousness of the crime, Brown said.
Judge Jane McMeeken said
Murray’s culpability principally relied on his failure to take any reasonable steps to ascertain the victim’s age.
Murray had told a pre sentence report writer that he’d thought asking the girl her age “might come across as creepy”, the judge said. "Regardless of that, your first communication with the victim was extremely graphic and it was unsolicited.”
Nonetheless, the judge believed the actions were at the “lower end for this type of offending”. She said she’d had seen the faceless photo of the victim in her bikini and didn’t think it gave an indication of how old she was.
"In your mind, I understand you believed you were engaging in consensual sexual communications with another adult.”
In discharging Murray without conviction, the judge acknowledged his many personal mitigating factors, and agreed that a black mark on his record would have “severe consequences”.
In a statement after the court hearing, Cook said Murray “accepted and acknowledged ... his actions fell below his ordinarily high standards”.
“Once Mr Murray learnt the true age of the victim he was devastated and remains so. He also immediately apologised unreservedly to the victim and her family.”
A police spokesperson said they were unable to comment because Murray no longer worked for police.