Teen, 19, intended having sex with 12yo — Judge

Believing a 19-year-old man with whom she had been exchanging sexual messages was travelling to her school to meet her, a 12-year-old girl got scared and told a friend whose father was a police officer.

Jordan Leslie Hill was subsequently charged with travelling to meet a minor for sex and two representative charges of indecently communicating with someone aged under 16.

He pleaded before guilty before trial to the communication charges but maintained his innocence to the grooming charge, of which he was found not guilty.

Judge Deidre Orchard said during sentencing in the Whangārei District Court that she respected the jury’s decision it was not proved beyond reasonable doubt Hill travelled to the girl’s school with the intention of meeting her for sex.

But even if it was not his intention on that day, the judge said she had no doubt Hill intended to meet the girl for sex at some other point.

She was also satisfied Hill knew the girl was only 12. The girl had told him from the outset and sent a picture of herself in which she not only looked her age but even younger.

The girl befriended Hill on Facebook in late 2019 or early 2020. He was related to someone she knew.

Their messages soon became sexualised, which Judge Orchard said she was satisfied Hill instigated.

The judge said Hill’s suggestion to a report writer that the girl was somehow responsible for the explicit messages because it was her who first messaged him, was concerning.

In defence submissions, Hill’s father claimed his son had developmental delays and may even be on the autism spectrum.

But Judge Orchard said there was still no expert clinical evidence to that effect despite her having Ōearlier flagged the need for it.

She was prepared to accept Hill was more naı¨ve than the average 19-year-old but there was nothing in the evidence to suggest he did not know it was wrong to sexually objectify a child.

Setting a starting point of 15 months’ imprisonment, the judge said aside from the girl’s young age, another aggravating feature of the offending was the enormous impact it had on the girl.

She was put in a position of humiliating herself by sending sexual images and had no way of knowing where they might have ended up.

It was obvious from her victim impact statement, she was “very scared” that Hill might humiliate her further by coming to her home or publishing the images online.

The judge allowed a 15 per cent discount for the belated guilty pleas.

There was no credit for remorse. Hill still did not appreciate the seriousness of his offending, the judge said.

She was concerned about protecting other children from him. While she could have added him to a national register of child sex offenders, she did not want¯Oto as the consequences of registration were so onerous and would last eight years.

The only other way she could see to prevent further offending by him was to ensure he attended a suitable programme such as Stop. With that in mind, she imposed 18 months of intensive supervision, including a condition requiring Hill to attend the programme. His compliance would be judicially monitored.

As a punitive aspect of the sentence, she imposed four months of community detention, with a curfew of 7pm to 5am, to be served at a Rotorua address.

Hill was ordered to pay $1500 to the victim for emotional harm.