Ali Alaraja accused of using social media to 'groom' girls, coerce them into sexual acts

Ali Bashar Alaraja faced the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday, his 20th birthday, to apply for a bail variation on charges that include committing an act of indecency on a child and supplying a controlled drug to a child.

The McKellar man had previously pleaded not guilty to the charges, which are set to be the subject of a contested hearing next March.

In documents tendered to the court, police say Alaraja was on a good behaviour order for stalking at the time of his alleged offending in April.

A 14-year-old girl participated in an interview with police that month, telling officers she had sent Alaraja an Instagram message and asked for a lift when she and two underage friends were drunk a few weeks earlier.

Police claim Alaraja agreed on the condition one of the children perform oral sex on him.

The girls are said to have decided the 14-year-old would masturbate him instead.

"[The 14-year-old] stated that she did not wish to do this, however thought it was their only option to get home," police allege.

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Alaraja is accused of subsequently driving this girl to "a secluded area" in the car park at Westfield Belconnen, where he allegedly got in the back seat with her.

Police claim the girl performed the sex act on him but not to his satisfaction, prompting him to get on the phone to one of the other children and attempt to solicit oral sex from her.

Alaraja is alleged to have later given the 14-year-old "a small amount of cannabis" before dropping the girls off at a different area of the shopping mall.

Investigators say one of the 14-year-old's friends told her, several days later, that she had met up with Alaraja and performed oral sex on him in exchange for cannabis after speaking to him on social media.

This girl spoke to police in May and provided screenshots of Instagram messages between herself and an account said to be operated by Alaraja.

"Is one off Yous giving me head [sic]?" Alaraja allegedly replied when asked if he could give her and her friends a lift.

Police seized Alaraja's car that day, describing it as an instrument of crime, before arresting him at Belconnen Police Station the next.

Alaraja was subsequently remanded in custody for nearly three months, with special magistrate Margaret Hunter ultimately granting him bail on August 2.

The case came back before her on Wednesday for an application to vary a bail condition that had banned Alaraja from accessing any electronic device or phone.

Defence lawyer Toni Tu'ulakitau asked for this to be amended so Alaraja could use a phone to engage with the Salvation Army, which was helping him look for employment.

Prosecutor James Melloy opposed the application, saying Ms Hunter had imposed the phone ban to protect the "vulnerable young girls" involved in the case.

"[Alaraja] uses the phone to effectively groom young girls, and coerces them into sexual acts," the prosecutor told the court as he argued against the proposed variation.

Ms Hunter ultimately varied the condition to allow Alaraja access to a phone or other electronic device in extremely limited circumstances.

She told the 20-year-old he must only use one at a Salvation Army office, under the direct supervision of one of that organisation's workers, to search for jobs.

The magistrate indicated she did not want Alaraja having "any sort of devices himself".

"Baby steps, Mr Tu'ulakitau," she told his lawyer.

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