Man who harassed Hey Dad! star with child porn SPARED jail

A pro-pedophilia internet troll in Victoria who harassed Australian actress Sarah Monahan on Facebook has been spared a jail sentence.

Luke Wallis, 34, harassed Monahan online in 2016 after she laid child sex charges against actor Robert Hughes, who played her on-screen father in the 1980s and ’90s Australian sitcom Hey Dad!

County Court of Victoria judge Irene Lawson on Friday convicted Wallis of using the internet to menace, harass or cause offence and transmitting child pornography.

A pro-pedophilia internet troll in Victoria who harassed Australian actress Sarah Monahan (pictured) on Facebook has been spared a jail sentence

The Bendigo man had been convicted of possessing child porn in 2013, and received a partially suspended jail sentence, the court was told.

Between June and August 2016, he used Facebook under a range of different names to post offensive material on Monahan’s page, which she’d set up to interact with the public and promote her recently released memoir.

Although Monahan tried to block him, Wallis created new Facebook profiles, often under the names of well-known pedophiles.

In July 2016 he made up a ‘vile and disturbing’ child pornography story that he posted on her page in a bid to get her to react.

The next month police searched Wallis’ home, finding material he’d created to ‘stir people up, cause offence and get people riled up’.

Judge Lawson said she initially thought Wallis had offended for the purposes of sexual gratification, but had since been convinced otherwise.

According to experts, he had a schizotypal personality disorder, mild depression and an antisocial personality disorder.

Wallis had been described as a loner with few social interactions and had been disturbed when he was unable to feel deep emotion following the death of his beloved grandmother just before he began offending, Judge Lawson noted.

Robert Hughes (front row, left) in an undated photo surrounded with the cast of Hey Dad! 

Robert Hughes (front row, left) in an undated photo surrounded with the cast of Hey Dad! 

 She said Wallis, in a desire to ‘feel something’, was driven to offend to get ‘some kind of emotional engagement’.

Wallis was said to be ‘very fond’ of his cats and had little else happening in his life other than an interest in storm chasing and was an excellent amateur photographer, the court was told.

He was placed on a community corrections order for three years plus three months imprisonment, which he does not have to serve as long as he remains of good behaviour.

Luke Wallis, 34, harassed Monahan online in 2016 after she laid child sex charges against actor Robert Hughes (pictured), who played her on-screen father in the 1980s and '90s Australian sitcom Hey Dad!

Luke Wallis, 34, harassed Monahan online in 2016 after she laid child sex charges against actor Robert Hughes (pictured), who played her on-screen father in the 1980s and ’90s Australian sitcom Hey Dad!

 

 

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