CRIMINAL LAW CONSOLIDATION (DISHONEST DEALINGS WITH CHILDREN) AMENDMENT BILL

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY (15:57): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY (15:58): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill is in honour of Carly Ryan, a beautiful girl taken tragically from this world well before her time. Members would be aware that Carly was the innocent victim of a perverted online predator who manipulated his way into her life through deception. On 20 February 2007 Carly, aged just 15 years, was brutally murdered at the hands of that predator, Garry Newman, who was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment with a 29-year nonparole period.

Since her death, Carly's mother, Sonia Ryan, has campaigned tirelessly for changes to our legislation, and dedicated herself to the promotion of online safety in order to prevent the same thing happening to other vulnerable children. She has established the Carly Ryan Foundation which aims to educate young people, and old, about the dangers of online communications and offers counselling to victims of internet crime. I would like to read onto the public record Carly's story as depicted on the Carly Ryan Foundation's website and promotional material. It states:

In 2006 Carly Ryan thought she had met her dream boyfriend online. His name was Brandon Kane, a 20yr old musician from Melbourne. Brandon was in fact fictitious. An internet construct, the cyberspace alter ego of Gary Francis Newman, a 50yr old predator and paedophile. Carly fell in love with the Brandon construct during months of online contact and phone calls.

Gary Newman took on another identity when he attended Carly's 15^th birthday that of Brandon's adopted father 'Shane'. In that guise he attempted to gain the trust of Carly's mum, Sonya, and continued to deceive Carly, buying her gifts and promising to bring Brandon to Adelaide to meet her.

Gary Newman spent months masquerading as Brandon Kane to win Carly's love. When he tried to seduce her in person pretending to be Brandon's father 'Shane' saying that Brandon wouldn't mind if his dad had sex with her, she rejected him. Angry, Gary Newman returned to Melbourne vowing to 'fix Carly up'. He used his alter ego to lure Carly to a final, fatal meeting.

In February 2007, Gary Newman convinced Carly to meet him. He took Carly to a secluded beach at Port Elliot, South Australia. There, he bashed her, pushed her face into the sand, suffocating her, he then threw her into the water to drown. She was only 15yrs old.

A local lady found Carly's body the next morning, covered in sand, her clothing in disarray.

Within 11 days, detectives located Gary Newman in Victoria. They found him at his computer, logged in as Brandon Kane talking with a 14yr old girl in Western Australia. They arrested him, charging him with Carly's murder. In a Supreme Court trial which continued for over three months, a jury found Gary Francis Newman guilty of murder. He was sentenced on March 31^st 2010. South Australian Justice Trish Kelly ordered him to serve a life behind bars with a 29yr non parole period.

Justice Kelly said, 'Gary Newman deserves a life behind bars for his grossly perverted plan to deceive, seduce and murder Carly. It was a terribly cruel thing you did to this beautiful, impressionable 15yr old child.' Justice Kelly said, 'I say child because that's what she was, a child that fell in love with the idea of the handsome, musically inclined and rather exotic Brandon Kane, the real man was in fact an overweight, balding, middle aged paedophile with sex and murder on his mind.'

Justice Kelly said, 'You were sexually obsessed with Carly to the degree that when you couldn't get your own way, you prepared to and did kill her'. Carly was a beautiful, sensitive, loving and amazing young lady with her whole life ahead of her. For Carly, her dreams, goals and future were taken away by a selfish, twisted, deviant sex predator.

The Carly Ryan Foundation was incorporated by Carly's mum, Sonya. Her aim is to create awareness and educate children and parents using the Internet. She will work to expose the thousands of multiple identities paedophiles use to lure young children.

Cyber perverts will continue to prey on kids unless we wake up to the risks of various online mediums, chat rooms and social networking sites. What happened to Carly can happen to anyone. People that groom the young online are manipulating and controlling. They know exactly how to target a child. They become the most important person in that child's life, then use that trust to do whatever they like to their victim. The Internet is part of our daily lives, it is essential that children, teens and young adults learn how to navigate the worldwide web safely.

Unfortunately, Sonya Ryan has learnt in the most difficult and tragic way the dangers that our children are exposed to each and every time they go online. The bill is intended to further strengthen legislation so as to deter and punish those perpetrators who knowingly and wilfully pursue minors via electronic means, be it the internet or a telephone.

The bill is consistent with that introduced at the federal level by my colleague Senator Nick Xenophon which is the subject of an ongoing inquiry by a parliamentary committee. In short, the bill provides that a person who knowingly communicates with a child by means of the internet or some other form of electronic communication, makes a false statement as to the person's age or identity in such communication, and meets or arranges to meet with the child is guilty of an offence punishable by a maximum five years' imprisonment.

Further, the bill provides that a person who knowingly communicates with a child by means of the internet or some other form of electronic communication and makes a false statement as to the person's age or identity in such communication with intent to commit an offence is guilty of an offence, punishable by a maximum 10 years' imprisonment. Members will note that a higher penalty applies where a person makes a false statement with the intent of committing an offence. This is intended to cover cases like Carly's where there was a clear intention by Gary Newman to commit the most heinous offence.

I appreciate that there may be some concerns about the scope of the first subclause, given previous concerns raised not only by other honourable members but also by me in relation to cases of young love. The Law Society has prepared a submission in response to the bill introduced by Nick Xenophon which echoes these concerns. It is important to note that Nick Xenophon's bill is much wider in scope, so some of those concerns raised by the Law Society would not apply to this bill.

However, there are some situations that the Law Society raises that could potentially be covered by the provisions of this bill. For instance, the Law Society states that the Xenophon bill could capture instances where an 18-year-old male chats with a person whom he believes to be 17. The 17 year old may make comments along the lines that she prefers older males. Later, the 18 year old may misrepresent his age as slightly older by two or three years, in order to impress the 17 year old and with a view to encouraging a meeting.

I think we all accept that in many cases, if not most cases, this may be viewed as a bit of harmless fun which would not amount to any subsequent criminal behaviour. Unfortunately, however, there will always be those cases where older men or women intentionally misrepresent their age or identity in order to groom and manipulate their young victims. That was certainly the situation involving Carly. It is these cases that the bill is intended to cover.

Again, I appreciate that there may be some sensitivities around the scope of the first subclause of the bill, and I indicate to all honourable members that I am more than willing to consider an alternative approach that still achieves the desired outcome. It may be, for instance, that consideration be given to inserting an age limit with respect to the definition of a child so as to capture those children aged under 15 years. I am open to any suggestions.

In closing, there is simply no escaping online technology anymore. More and more, online mediums, chat rooms and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are becoming a normal means of communicating amongst people of all ages. A lot of children, young and old, have relatively unrestricted access to the internet and mobile phones. As a parent or caregiver, it is extremely difficult to monitor these communications.

Clearly, our legislation is struggling to keep up with the advances of online and mobile phone technology. As such, there is a growing number of gaping holes in attempting to deal with some online activities. Unfortunately, there are also those in the community with sick and twisted minds who are intent on using these sites to groom and lure young, impressionable children. No family should have to suffer the pain that Carly, her mother and her family and friends have endured. No other child should lose their life at the hands of a sick monster like Gary Newman.

Finally, I would like to thank Sonya Ryan for lending her support to this bill and for her tireless efforts in trying to better educate our children and young adults about the dangers of communicating with strangers. Before concluding my remarks, I seek leave to table a submission that Sonya Ryan has prepared for the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, which is currently inquiring into the bill introduced by Senator Xenophon at the federal level. This is a commendable piece of legislation which deserves bipartisan support. I urge all honourable members to support it.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon T.J. Stephens.