A social media influencer has been found guilty of twice sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy after she admitted she was attracted to him and said she saw him as an adult.
The 46-year-old woman, who cannot be identified, pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual intercourse with a child under 16.
She was accused of drunkenly climbing into bed with a teenager one night in mid-2021 before having oral and penetrative sex with him.
After an eight-day trial in the NSW District Court, a jury of eight men and four women found her guilty of child abuse.
After an eight-day trial in the NSW District Court, a jury of eight men and four women found her guilty of child abuse.
“Guilty,” the jury foreman said on Friday in response to both charges.
There were shouts from the back of the courtroom from about 10 of the woman’s supporters as the verdicts were read out to the court.
Family members were seen hunched over and sobbing, while one man said: “What?”
The woman sat stone-faced as she looked straight at the jury, showing no emotion as she learned her fate.
The 46-year-old woman had admitted kissing the teenager in bed but insisted she stopped before any sexual activity took place.
On Friday, the jury rejected her evidence, ruling that she had performed oral sex on the 14-year-old before having penetrative sex with him.
Just hours before she sexually assaulted the teen, the influencer was filmed performing a “sexually suggestive” dance for him.
In the video shown to the court, she can be seen rubbing circles on her butt, lifting her shirt to show her stomach and twerking in front of the child.
Crown prosecutor Emma Blizard said the sexual dance was evidence of the woman’s state of mind within hours of entering the bedroom.
She highlighted a phone conversation between the influencer and the teen in mid-2022, which was lawfully wiretapped by police.
“I started to love you so much that I got confused, like I started to be attracted to you,” the woman told the teen before laughing.
‘You’re a man now. You’re not a boy, you’re clearly a man.’
During the overheard conversation, the influencer claimed she did not remember having sex with the teen.
There were shouts from the back of the courtroom from about ten of the woman’s supporters as the verdicts were read out to the court (photo, Downing Center Courts, Sydney)
Ms Blizard told the jury she was either too drunk to remember sexually abusing the boy, or she lied about it and didn’t go further than kissing.
“I had a serious alcohol problem and had frequent blackouts,” the 46-year-old woman told the teen after he brought up the assault during the phone call.
She remembered drinking a bottle and a half of red wine that night, but the teen estimated she had drunk three bottles of wine.
The influencer also told the court that she gave “half a glass” of wine to her victim before sexually assaulting him.
She will be sentenced at a later date by Judge Sarah Hopkins.