Oliver James Simonetti sentenced by ACT Supreme Court to community-based order for child abuse material

A "selfish, violent and sadistic" child sex offender who also threatened to kill some of his victims has been spared full-time jail despite his set of offences being more serious than similar ones before. The ACT Supreme Court on Friday heard that Oliver James Simonetti pretended to be a 14-year-old girl called Olivia when he chatted to a boy on Instagram in 2016. The offender, then 18, requested child abuse material from the boy in which several images were sent. When the boy tried to stop the contact, the offender sent the pictures to some of the boy's friends and published them on Instagram accounts. The offender agreed to take down the images but only if the boy provided videos of himself, with which he complied. The offender sent two of the videos to the boy's girlfriend and used the videos as part of his kill threats against the boy and other children online. He told one girl the boy had 2.5 hours to live and that the videos would be made public. In November 2016, police searched the offender's home and seized an iPhone upon which they found four images and 11 videos constituting child abuse material. MORE COURT AND CRIME NEWS The court heard the material included a child "performing quite perverted actions upon himself". Simonetti, in his mid 20s, pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to transmit and publish child abuse material, to make a kill threat, and to menace. In 2018, he was sentenced to 2.5 years' jail for similar offending online, also in 2016. The court heard that following that sentencing, Simonetti was placed on the sex offender's register for life. His mother said dolls covered in red paint were found at their house and pictures of explicit material was placed in their letterbox. As part of his previous sentence, Simonetti "meaningfully engaged in targeted treatment". He attended a sexual offender program in which the targets "have been met to a good or excellent standard". Following his release, he has undergone private counselling. Justice Michael Elkaim said it was important to note that the latest sentencing was for offences before the 2018 sentencing. "In other words, it cannot be said that he has returned to offending," Justice Elkaim said. "Nevertheless, the offending being dealt with today shows that the subject of the 2018 sentencing was not isolated in nature." Justice Elkaim said he agreed with the prosecution that the latest sentencing involved offences that were "probably a little more" objectively serious. He said the five-year delay in authorities prosecuting Simonetti was "difficult to understand" and that while it impacted the victims, it was also a mitigating factor in sentencing. "This is one of the rare cases where it might be said that rehabilitation has been successful," he said. Justice Elkaim said that to send the offender back into full-time custody would contradict all the hopes for him to lead a productive life. "This ability is already impeded by his convictions; it would be wrong to add to the impediments," he said. The judge said the delay and rehabilitation success meant special circumstances existed in Simonetti's latest case, which persuaded him not to impose full-time jail. He said that while the victims, who viewed the proceedings via audio-visual link, did not provide impact statements, their experiences nevertheless must had been awful and frightening. During sentencing, the offender had his letter of apology read out by his lawyer, Kieran Ginges. "I'm deeply sorry. There is nothing that you did which warranted your having to experience such extreme harassment, fear, and abuse," the letter reads. Simonetti wrote that he "lashed out in a selfish, violent and sadistic manner without any fault being yours". "I've violated your privacy, security, emotions, sexuality and trust," the letter reads. He wrote that the offending came from a place of hurt within him, which he said was not an excuse, and offered to help the victims if he could. He was sentenced to an intensive corrections order of about 26 months. Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: