Child rapist’s sickening excuse when he was caught tying a girl to his bed: ‘Have you seen Fifty Shades of Grey?’

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

A predator who groomed and sexually abused vulnerable young girls gave a chilling and callous apology to police when he was caught tying one to his bed – all while out on bail.

John Patrick Gillespie kept his eyes closed and his head down as he was convicted of indecently treating the young girls.

After being charged in August 2022, Gillespie violated bail multiple times, including one instance where he was caught tying one of the girls to his bed with rope.

When questioned by police, Gillespie explained that he “showed her how he tied up his friends” and joked if they had seen the movie Fifty Shades of Grey.

“Your breach of bail… demonstrates a worrying lack of understanding of the crime for which you have been charged, and a worrying persistence in sexual contact with one of your victims,” ​​Brisbane District Court Judge John Allen told reporters on Friday. Gillespie.

“It is somewhat inexplicable that this is the first time you have offended anyone in this way.”

Gillespie pleaded guilty to four charges of indecent treatment of children under the age of 12, four charges of breaching bail conditions and one charge of rape.

The court was told Gillespie effectively groomed one child by giving her money and buying her alcohol, cannabis and vapes to entice her to spend time with him.

Crown prosecutor Melissa Wilson said Gillespie was caught licking the complainant’s vagina.

On other occasions he pinned the same girl on her stomach and grabbed her vagina over her clothes, ‘squeezed’ her buttocks and touched her breasts in a public swimming pool.

Ms Wilson said another girl, aged 11 at the time, was at Gillespie’s home when, without warning, he lifted her skirt, exposing her underwear.

The rape charge arose against a third girl – who was 16 years old at the time – after Gillespie subjected her to the same grooming behavior in which he would buy her “alcohol, cannabis, cigarettes, vapes, clothing and food.”

“He also made sexualised comments to her… that he couldn’t stop thinking about her, that he wanted to touch her, that she had a ‘nice cock’,” Ms Wilson said.

The court was told Gillespie digitally raped the girl after she passed out while drinking alcohol.

“The next morning she woke up on the couch with her jeans open and blood in her underwear,” Wilson said.

“(She) had no memory of the events due to her drunkenness.”

After Gillespie was charged and released on bail, he repeatedly breached orders by failing to keep his curfew and interact with the complainants.

Police found a photo of one of the girls lying on his bed while he stood next to her in his underwear.

Another contained the video of Gillespie tying the girl to his bed head with rope.

“The defendant initially told police he was just playing with her jewelry before saying he showed her how he ties up his friends,” Wilson said.

“He laughed and asked the officers if they had seen (the movie) 50 Shades of Gray.”

In sentencing Gillespie to four years in prison, Judge Allen suspended the sentence but also imposed two years of probation.

The 758 days Gillespie had spent in pre-trial detention were counted as time served.

Defense attorney Steven Dickson said Gillespie otherwise had a good work history as a painter whose life revolved around his job and family.

Mr Dickson said his client’s offending was ‘relatively unexplained’ but could have been the result of isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He has since come to understand his offending while in custody, Dickson said.