A REGISTERED child sex offender from Bordertown who maintained a sexual relationship with a child under the age of 16 has been ordered to spend at least three years behind bars.
Michael Aiden Koch, 27, appeared in the District Court of South Australia in Adelaide on Monday in front of Judge Rauf Soulio, facing charges of maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child and producing child exploitation material.
Pleading guilty to both charges, the court heard the offending involved a female Koch met while she was aged 14, but started a sexual relationship spanning around three weeks when she was 15 years of age.
This included intercourse with the victim, kissing her on the lips and touching her breasts.
At the time of the offending in 2018, Koch was subject to Australian National Child Offence Register (ANCOR) obligations, which required him to report contact with a child within two days.
Koch was previously convicted for engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a 12-year-old girl in June 2012 – when he was aged 20 – and was sentenced to serve two years imprisonment with a non-parole period of nine months for the offending.
Issues stemming from his ANCOR obligations started to arise in September 2017 when Koch was seen driving with the victim and her 17-year-old sister as passengers, but he failed to report the contact.
On October 10, 2018, police attended Koch’s residence in relation to the reporting failure.
Police also discovered Koch had gained paid employment but had not advised ANCOR, which was required.
Koch was charged with two counts of failure to comply with reporting obligations and placed on bail with a condition he was not to contact the victim or her sister.
On October 17, Koch was again observed in a vehicle with the victim’s sister and was charged with breaching bail with the matter dealt with in the magistrates court.
Two weeks after that offending, Koch was placed on bail for driving offences.
Judge Soulio said following the defendant’s release, the victim started visiting Koch’s house at his request.
“You would ask her to visit when she was on her way to school,” he said.
“On the initial occasion you contacted her and she attended at your house in the morning.
“You ultimately engaged in penile-vaginal sexual intercourse. You continued to see her and engaged in sexual intercourse on some six occasions.”
Judge Soulio said on certain occasions Koch took photographs of himself and the victim together.
“The photograph, which is the subject of count two, is what is known as a ‘selfie’ which depicts you and the victim lying in bed together,” he said.
“I have not seen the photograph but the description given is that you are both bare-chested. She has her hand partly obscuring her face and chest.
“The photograph was taken on November 13, 2018. There is no suggestion the photograph was distributed to anyone else.”
The court heard the Bordertown man was the eldest of four brothers and was raised on a farm which he continued to live on up until the time he was taken into custody.
A psychological analysis underwent by Dr White revealed Koch was introduced to the use of alcohol at about the age of 17, to cannabis at about the age of 19 and then started using methylamphetamine at the age of 20.
“You became addicted to and a heavy user of that drug which you said badly affected you and impacted upon your judgment and made you paranoid,” Judge Soulio said.
“He said (Dr White) your lack of awareness that engaging in relationships with your females was inappropriate was likely to lead you to have conflict with the law and that your use of illicit substances had also significantly impacted upon your judgement and decision making.
“Dr White said that you met the diagnostic criteria for a cannabis use disorder, a stimulant use disorder, a post-traumatic stress disorder, an adjustment disorder and a mixed paranoid antisocial borderline personality disorder.”
Despite his history of offending against younger females, Dr White’s analysis suggested Koch’s actions were a consequence from lack of social skills rather than a case of explicitly targeting young females.
Judge Soulio said due to the nature of the offending and his prior history, Koch must inevitably attract substantial terms of imprisonment.
Koch was sentenced to serve six years imprisonment with a fixed non-parole period of three years and three months.
The sentence and the non-parole period was backdated to March 29, 2019 when Koch was taken into custody.
“The offending is too serious to contemplate any course other than immediate imprisonment,” Judge Soulio finished.
