The former NSW police officer, Vaughan Mark Hildebrand was sentenced last week to 20 years behind bars for blackmailing multiple women into having sex with him.
THE STORY
The Sydney Morning Herald reported last Friday that the former policeman tormented 15 victims in total, four of whom he scammed or bullied into having intercourse.
On Friday, he was jailed for his “cunning, calculating and manipulative” crimes. NSW District Court Judge Robyn Tupman delivered the scathing assessment of his behaviour as he sat before her in prison greens and was sentenced to a total of 20 years’ jail with a non-parole period of 15 years.
She said “He failed as a human being in the way he did abuse, manipulate and callously deal with the victims of all of these offences. He abused his position as a police officer, he abused the trust of his friends, he abused the trust of his partner.”
The 30-year-old had previously admitted to 44 offences and pleaded guilty to 11 counts of having sexual intercourse without consent, 10 of using a carriage service to menace or harass and one of using the same to solicit child pornography.
The court heard bizarre details of Hildebrand’s abuse, including his use of fake identities to contact women he was friends with and threats to release intimate photos of them unless they sent him more naked images.
More than once the women asked him for help, having no idea the man they believed was a friend was actually the stranger tormenting them through Facebook and Snapchat.
One ex-girlfriend turned to him after a someone using a random number contacted her and tried to blackmail her into sending pictures of her breasts. She sent Hildebrand screenshots of the messages and he offered to help but in return, asked for oral sex because solving the problem would involve him approaching people who would be breaking the law.
When he then threatened to send photos from their former relationship to her parents, the woman relented.
A number of Hildebrand’s victims were fellow police officers, one he’d become close to when they were on patrol together on the morning of the 2014 Lindt Cafe siege.
The court previously heard Hildebrand’s first offence occurred in 2007, when his victim was a teenager. He forced her to perform oral sex by threatening to send nude images of her to her family and friends, and later to her boss.
His abuse of the young woman escalated over time to the point that he played with knives in her company while describing how he hunted and killed pigs.
At one stage after he became a policeman, she came to him for advice about a relative’s arrest and he forced her into sex again by either saying he would either help through his contacts or get “him put away”.
He will be eligible for release in May 2032.
SEXUAL INTERCOURSE WITHOUT CONSENT – THE LAW
The offence of sexual assault can be found in section 61l of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). This section states:
Any person who has sexual intercourse with another person without the consent of the other person and who knows that the other person does not consent to the sexual intercourse is liable to imprisonment for 14 years.
There are 3 important elements of this offence:
- There must be sexual intercourse;
- Without the consent of the other person; and
- You must know that the other person does not give consent.
To read more about sex offences, click on this link.
USING A CARRIAGE SERVICE TO MENACE OR HARASS – DEFINED
Use carriage service to menace occurs when a person uses guided and/or unguided electromagnetic energy to menace, harass or cause offence. In layman terms, this refers to emails, text messages and calls and social media communications. This list however is not exhaustive and as this offence such is given quite a broad definition which covers most electronic communications.
THE LAW
The offence of “using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence,” is a Commonwealth offence and is contained in section 474.17 the Criminal Code Act 1995 (CTH) which states: “a person is guilty of an offence if:
- The person uses a carriage service; and
- The person does so in a way (whether by the method of use or the content of a communication, or both) that reasonable persons would regard as being, in all the circumstances, menacing, harassing or offensive.”
Use Carriage Service to Menace can be punished with a prison sentence of up to 2 years (if heard in the Local Court) or up to 3 years (If heard in the District Court).
To read more about this offence, click on this link.
To read our previous bog on NSW Police officer faces Court over allegations of sexual assault, click here.
If you or anyone you know has been charged with any of these offences, contact National Criminal Lawyers for a free consultation.