For years Travis Christopher Scot Wood "recklessly" groomed girls online, even sending an underage teen an indecent picture after being told she was in a car with her father.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Overall Wood engaged with 18 girls aged 13 to 15, posing as a teenage boy for the majority of 41 sexually explicit conversations, a Brisbane court has heard.
On nine occasions Wood - now aged 28 - requested indecent photos.
Different girls relented on seven occasions, sometimes after Wood's persistent demands.
He also sent girls a total of 32 indecent photos of teenage boys and claimed they were pictures of him, the District Court was told.
Judge Terry Gardiner went through the details of almost all of the 26 charges while sentencing Wood on Friday.
"You sent her a (explicit) picture ... after she indicated she was in the car with her father," he said of one count.
For two years and seven months, Wood - who was aged 24 to 26 at the time - contacted underage girls online.
The conduct ended after he sent an indecent picture in June 2020 to a 15-year-old girl.
She was actually an undercover police officer.
Explicit conversations and pictures were found on his laptop during a subsequent police search of his Queensland residence.
When asked about his offending, Wood told officers: "I don't know why I do it, I truly don't."
Defence barrister Paula Morreau said Wood was "disgusted with himself".
"He acted recklessly, he acted selfishly, and ... in a complete avoidance of the reality of the impact on the children he interacted with," she said.
Wood later told a psychologist about "being in a fantasy world" during his offending, the court heard.
A psychologist's report said Wood did not have "any particular tendency toward children", describing the online conversations as an easy way to obtain sexual gratification.
Wood pleaded guilty to 18 counts of grooming a child under 16 with intent to expose to indecent matter, seven counts of using internet to procure children under 16 and one of possessing child exploitation material.
"There is little doubt in my mind that your offending would have had an effect on those children," Judge Gardiner said.
"Your behaviour was persistent ... and somewhat predatory.
"There is a need to protect children from this type of conduct and from people like you."
With his father and brother looking on, Wood was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail, suspended after six months followed by three years of probation.
Australian Associated Press
