James Robert Sbresni: Man who groomed 14-year-old Geraldton girl over Snapchat found guilty of raping her

An Eastern States predator groomed a teenage girl for months over Snapchat before flying to WA, and repeatedly raping her in a derelict Mid West hotel. The horrifying details of the 14-year-old’s two-day ordeal in the Geraldton hellhole and nearby bush — during which she was raped at least four times — were revealed during a harrowing trial after which James Robert Sbresni was found guilty of two counts of rape on Thursday. He had earlier pleaded guilty to two rape charges in Geraldton District Court. During one of the attacks in bush near Seal Rock, where Sbresni raped the girl despite the victim telling him she “did not really want to do it” and “wanted to go home”. He told her she couldn’t leave. It was alleged in one of the first attacks, Sbresni raped the girl and held her down at knifepoint, telling her she “hoped she enjoyed it, as it wouldn’t be the last time”. The then 19-year-old groomed the Geraldton girl, then 13, over Snapchat for four months during which he sent a naked photo of himself to her. Their communications became increasingly sexually explicit and she called him “daddy”. The pair had met through mutual friends which experts warn is a key strategy by sexual predators to befriend vulnerable children. He flew to WA from Victoria in June last year, lying on his G2G pass saying that he was a returning WA resident and his destination was the victim’s former family home in Geraldton. When in fact it was the culmination of a concerted and sick grooming operation. Sbresni, who has autism and ADHD, also lied to the victim, telling her he had cancer. After quarantining for two weeks, he took a bus to Geraldton to meet the girl, who had turned 14, face-to-face. Jurors heard chilling pre-recorded evidence from the victim that over June 11 and 12 last year, Sbresni repeatedly raped her at the rundown Batavia Motor Inne and in bush near Geraldton’s CBD. The girl told the court of one terrifying moment she was sexually assaulted in the hotel. “I woke up with him touching me, I asked him what he was doing, he said “he woke up horny” and asked if I wanted it or not. When I said ‘no’, he didn’t care. I didn’t scream as the knife was beside him, he eventually stopped,” she said. The Batavia Motor Inne — a derelict eyesore which has been a hotbed of antisocial behaviour for years — was the scene of three of the rapes. Sbresni first met the victim at Geraldton’s foreshore before the Seal Rock attack. The pair later headed to Maitland Park but when it started to get dark the girl made the fateful suggestion that they move to the Batavia Motor Inne. While the pair were at the hotel, a frantic online campaign was unfolding as the girl’s family tried to get Sbresni to let her go, which eventually led to police finding them and rescuing the girl. “Take the 14 yr old girl home!! Her family is worried sick about her” one person pleaded on Sbresni’s Facebook page. The court was told the girl’s family knew she had been speaking to Sbresni in the months leading up to her disappearance. Her sister, who had seen messages between the pair, messaged Sbresni asking if he knew where she was, but he denied being with her. He then called the police telling them he hadn’t seen the girl. The victim’s mother posted after Sbresni’s arrest, “my daughter is safe from this scum and now he is locked up in Perth jail”. The victim initially denied having sex with Sbresni in her first two police interviews. However, during a medical examination the next day, she admitted to her doctor that she had had sex with Sbresni. In her third interview, the girl said “I want to tell you what really happened” before detailing how she was preyed on over the two days. In later interviews the girl said more rapes occurred over the two days, which Sbresni denied. Sbresni, now 21, appeared via video link from prison during the four-day trial. In her closing remarks, defence lawyer Eva Svanberg called into question the validity of the victim’s evidence, noting the inconsistencies between her interviews. State prosecutor Darryl Carlson argued the victim was a truthful witness whose first response was to defend the predator as she was still trying to process what had happened to her. District Court Judge Alan Troy said while the victim “may have been interested in the fantasy of all this, she was not interested in the reality”. The jury deliberated for just over two hours before finding Sbresni guilty. Sbresni pleaded guilty to four of his nine charges before his trial started on Monday — including two counts of rape, one count of sending a nude photo of himself to the victim, and one count of indecent dealing — while the jury found him guilty of another two counts of rape. He was acquitted of a further three counts of sexual penetration of a child under 16. After the trial, the judge revealed Sbresni was on bail at the time of the offences for similar crimes in Victoria. In August 2020, a photo of a knife was posted on his Facebook profile showing his predilection for weapons. Sbresni will be sentenced on January 27. Online experts warn that the case highlights that the risk of predators approaching teens on social media platforms like Snapchat is “more common than we think”. Online safety educator Paul Litherland said it was important for parents to understand how the platforms their children used worked, have conversations with them about the risks and establish rules for social media use. “The problem I find is the gap between parents not being familiar with the apps and kids knowing the apps, so try to understand their world, understand where they are coming from, and make sure you know how the apps work and what you can do to minimise and restrict,” he said. One solution can be for parents to create a “contract” with their child, agreeing on the rules for how they can use their phone. Parental controls on phones and apps can also be used to restrict access to apps, set time limits, and provide more privacy for children. Mr Litherland said parents should warn their kids about friend requests from people they did not know, but had mutual friends with. “Once I, if I was a predator, have 10 mutual friends with a child I want to target, they are more likely to accept my request,” he said. “That’s where most of our teenagers are compromising themselves, not from total strangers but from people they think they know.” Cybersafety expert Susan McLean said Snapchat was an especially problematic app. “We know Snapchat can be particularly dangerous with limited safety and security,” she said. “If you are going to allow your over-13 child to use it, you need to be there with them and and regularly check their account, which is a problem because the content has gone — you have to rely on what you see and what the children tell you, so it’s one of the hardest ones from a parent’s point of view to manage.” According to Ms McLean, Snapchat has featured in almost every case forensic paediatricians have looked at regarding sexual assault in children in the last five years in her State of Victoria. Under no circumstance should a child under 13 be using Snapchat, Ms McLean said.