Director of Public Prosecutions v Bridge (a pseudonym)

[2025] VCC 1243

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL DIVISION

Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

VERONICA BRIDGE (A PSEUDONYM)

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JUDGE:	HARPER
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	18 August 2025
DATE OF SENTENCE:	29 August 2025
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Bridge (a pseudonym)
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2025] VCC 1243

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:CRIMINAL LAW

Catchwords:              Grooming, sexual assault of a child under 16, sexual penetration of a child under 16

Legislation Cited:      Sentencing Act 1991, Sex Offenders Registration Act 2004

Cases Cited:Bugmy v The Queen (2013) 249 CLR 571, R v Verdins [2007) VSCA 102DPP v Allen [2020] VSCA 292, DPP v Woods [2020] VCC 1133, DPP v Beavis (a pseudonym) [2023] VCC, DPP v Ooms [2023] VSCA 207

Sentence:                  TES 3 years 2 months imprisonment with a NPP of 23 months

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the DPP	Ms A Liantzakis	Ms A Hogan, Solicitor for Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr D  De Witt	Angus Cameron and Partners

HER HONOUR:

1Veronica Bridge,[1] you have pleaded guilty before me to one charge of grooming for sexual conduct with a child under the age of 16, 2 charges of sexual assault of a child under the age of 16 and 2 charges of sexual penetration of a child under 16 years.  Charges 3, 4 and 5 are rolled up charges.

[1] A pseudonym.

2The maximum penalty for grooming is 10 years imprisonment.  For sexual assault of a child under the age of 16 years the maximum penalty is 10 years imprisonment with a standard sentence of 4 years in each instance.   For sexual penetration of a child under 16 years the maximum penalty is 15 years imprisonment with a standard sentence of 6 years in each case. 

3I will return to the standard sentence in due course. 

Circumstances of offending

4The circumstances of your offending were comprehensively outlined in the summary of prosecution opening upon plea dated 29 July 2025.  I shall summarise those facts here.

5At the time of your offending you were 30 years of age.  Your victim was a 15 year old boy who worked with you at a hospitality venue.  You met at work in July 2024 and on your third meeting exchanged social media details.  You then began to send him messages on Instagram and Snapchat. 

Charge 1 – grooming of a child under 16

6Between 23 July 2024 and 10 August 2024 you sent messages to your victim on over 500 occasions.  This included text, voice, video and still images of yourself, on both Instagram and Snapchat, with the intention that the communications would facilitate your victim engaging in sexual activity with you. 

7You exchanged messages with your victim which included you saying things such as:

(a)   “you’re bad.”

(b)   “We have known each other for 3 days.  So yeah gotta be careful.”

(c)   “If I send you a photo you better never show it to anyone”

(d)   “…like you do something to me.  Why are you only 15.  It’s fkd.  And writing that is just fkd.  It’s all fdk.”

(e)   “Ik you love me, you have no idea … you do love me though just a lil, I’m what you want.  I’m your dream girl.”

(f)    “Not long babe, me looking up at you in lingerie, or naked. Not long at all.”

(g)   “You’re a 15-year-old guy and you’re getting, like, lingerie photos off a 30-year-old so yeah, think of yourself very very lucky.”

(h)   “I wish firstly you were older, you lying on a bed or couch. I come over to you and kiss you and you take off my lingerie, by that time I would be wet and put you in my mouth or inside me. That’s the honest truth. Very sexual. But I think you would just look at me with those eyes and be in heaven.”

(i)    “… obviously I’m 30 and you’re 15, every time I say it out loud I’m like what the fuck but um, yeah it would be me getting in trouble, it would fuck everything up and like, I like a little risk, it’s fun, it’s healthy, it’s flirty but if we were alone together, like alone alone together, I like would kiss you, like I probably would.”

(j)    “Yeah I would I’m completely in the mood now, which sounds so bad… But I would love to be on top.”

8You sent your victim a video of you performing oral sex on another male, accompanied by a messaged reading “Fully deep throat, you can wake up to something nice.”

9At your victim’s request you bought him alcohol to take to a party.

10You sent him various photos of you in lingerie and stated “I imagine you sitting in the back of my car, me on top of you kissing you, you take off my top, grab me and kiss me everywhere. And then I put you inside me. Would feel amazing.”

11Your victim sent you some photos of himself in a school uniform and saved the images and videos you had exchanged to his mobile phone camera roll.

Charge 2 – sexual assault of a child under 16

12On 27 July 2024 you drove your victim home from work after you each completed a shift.  You had the vodka that you had purchased for him in your car.  You drove to the vicinity of his house and stopped the vehicle, kissing him on the mouth before he went inside. 

13You later send him text messages including:

(a)   “I didn’t want that kiss to end, I was thinking out doing that all night.”

(b)   “I haven’t done that before especially the age gap, we just get along so well … I just want to kiss you again.”

(c)   “Yeah well it was a good kiss I want another one.”

Charge 3 – sexual assault of a child under 16

Charge 4 – sexual penetration of a child under 16

Charge 5 – sexual penetration of a child under 16

14On 10 August 2024 you and your victim both worked an evening shift.  Prior to the shift commencing you sent him a message reading “I’m gonna sit on top of you while you take my bra off, kissing me and then il decide what I’m going to do with you….”  You also sent videos of yourself.

15At about 10.30 you and your victim left work in your vehicle.  You told him that you could not believe you were doing this, that you had to wait until he was 17 or 18 but that you didn’t care. You pulled over and began kissing your victim on the mouth in the front seat of the car (goes to charge 3).

16While kissing him you put your hand into his pants and rubbed his penis (goes to charge 3).

17You and your victim then climbed across the centre console into the back seat of the car.  He removed his pants and underwear and you put his penis in your mouth, performing oral sex on him for approximately 5 minutes (goes to charge 4).

18After a brief discussion about having sexual intercourse, you recommenced performing oral sex on your victim for a further minute or two (goes to charge 4).

19You then removed your clothes and underwear, straddled your victim and introduced his penis into your vagina for some 5 minutes (goes to charge 5).  You changed positions and lay on your back, having sex with your victim for a further 10 minutes (goes to charge 5).

20He stopped and sat up on the back seat of the car.  You straddled him again and had sex with him for a further 10 seconds (goes to charge 5).  Finally you lay on your back again and introduced his penis into your vagina (goes to charge 5), having sex until he ejaculated inside your vagina. 

21Between 25 July 2024 and 10 August 2024, your victim told his father someone was sending him sexual posts. He later told 2 managers that you had been sending explicit photos and he wanted it to stop as he felt uncomfortable.  The manager called your victim’s mother and he later told her and his father about the offending.  He told them he felt guilty because he got an erection and he “was wanting a head job but it went somewhere [he] was not expecting.“

22He made disclosures to a neighbour and work colleagues before reporting the matter to police. 

23You sent him messages about losing your job and getting your story straight. 

24Police downloaded his Snapchat data and he made disclosures to his sisters.

25Police executed a search warrant at your address and seized a number of items including an iPhone containing conversations, images and videos sent to and received from your victim.  A jacket located in your vehicle was analysed and found to contain your victim's semen in the inner rear hood region. 

26You were interviewed and exercised your right to make no comment.

Offence gravity

27Any sexual offence perpetrated against a child is serious, as reflected in the maximum penalty and standard sentence set by parliament. There is a well-established presumption of harm to the children who are the victims of such offending.  They are incapable of providing valid consent and must be protected from exposure to premature sexual activity. 

28While charge 3 is rolled up to reflect both kissing and touching your victim’s penis, charge 4 is rolled up to reflect 2 instances of oral sex and charge 5 is rolled up to reflect 4 acts of penetration, I accept that these were effectively all part of the one episode. 

29Nevertheless you offending is serious.  While many of the often seen aggravating factors such as violence and coercion are not present here, your teenage victim was only half your age at 15 years.  You knew what you were doing was both wrong and illegal.  You said as much in the course of the text messages referred to above which constitute the grooming charge.

30While the offending spanned a period of two and a half weeks, it involved a significant amount of Instagram and Snapchat contact which was persistent and clearly intended to facilitate sexual contact.  You flattered and encouraged your victim, preying on his sexual naivety in what can only be seen as textbook grooming.

Plea of guilty

31As conceded by the prosecution, your plea of guilty was an early one and there is significant utility in it.  You have saved the community the time and expense of running a trial and spared the witnesses, in particular your victim, the ordeal of giving evidence.  You have facilitated the administration of justice, and you are entitled to a benefit for that. 

32By your plea, you have also demonstrated an acceptance of responsibility for your offending which I take into account.

33Your plea is further evidence of some level of remorse however, I note that in the psychological assessment by Mr Newton to which I will return, you suggested that your victim was the instigator of the escalation in your conduct and the sexual contact itself and said that you went along with what he asked of you.  This is at odds with the messages you exchanged with your victim following charge 2 and again following the offending in charges 3, 4 and 5 and is a demonstration of you minimising your conduct.

Victim impact

34While the complainant elected not to make a victim impact statement, I did receive one from his mother.  She detailed the impact of the offending on herself, her son and the family unit.  She stated that “most of all this has left lasting emotional wounds.  Our son is still a boy and the trauma he has experienced and we as a family have experienced will not simply fade with time.  He will carry the effects into his future, in his relationships, his self-esteem and his ability to feel safe.”

35The impact of your offending cannot be underestimated on your victim, his parents and those around him.

Personal circumstances

36You are 31 years old, having been born in December 1993.  You grew up in Gembrook and are the second of three children. You maintain a close relationship with your mother and brother but have a strained relationship with your father and sister.

37You attended primary school in Macclesfield and secondary school at Mater Christi College and Box Hill Senior Secondary School where you completed year 12. 

38Your family struggled financially throughout your childhood, which placed significant stress on your parents and in turn, upon you and your siblings.

39You were regularly bullied about your physical appearance growing up. This has transcended into your adult life where your body-image issues caused your mental health to decline.

40You were a “hyperemotional child [who] lived in a lot of fear.” You attribute this to being sexually abused by your father at the age of 7. You continue to struggle with complicated feelings about maintaining relationships with your family. 

41You began using cannabis and alcohol when you were in year 12 as a coping mechanism to deal with various mental health symptoms. This manifested into behavioural issues in school, tension at home and struggles with emotional dysregulation.

42After completing school, you moved to Warrnambool to live with your grandparents and commenced studying a degree in nursing.

43You struggled without your family and friends and became socially isolated as a result. You completed 3 months of your nursing degree before relocating to Mount Hotham where you lived a chaotic, party lifestyle among the tourist population. This is where you met your first serious romantic partner who you were in a relationship with for 10 years.

44He would supply you with drugs and showed increasingly controlling behaviours. He was physically violent on several occasions. He would restrict your finances and dictate your food intake, causing you to become isolated from your friends and family.

45As a result, your mental health declined further, your relationship ended and you were admitted to Malvern Hospital following multiple suicide attempts.

46It was at this time you met your second serious romantic partner.  He also struggled with substance dependence and was extremely violent. He assaulted you on multiple occasions and threatened to harm your family, resulting in an intervention order and criminal charges.

47You completed a Bachelor of Nursing at Victoria University in 2017 and began working as a nurse in 2018. You took great pride in your work and felt it was a strong part of your identity, however after your ex-partner received a non-custodial disposition for family violence offences against you, your mental health declined and you stole medication from your workplace.

48You returned the medication the following day however this incident led to your registration being suspended by AHPRA with a formal determination still pending.

49You did not tell your family about your loss of employment and would fill time by sleeping in your car, abusing substances and blacking out. You recall using opiates, Valium and consuming alcohol during this time.

50Eventually, you secured employment at the hospitality venue where you met the complainant. Since being charged you have been abstinent from drugs and have taken steps to address your dependence issues and stabilise your mental health.

51I received a report from Clinical and Forensic Psychologist Mr Patrick Newton dated 11 August 2025. He opined that you “meet the diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder, polysubstance dependence (early remission), adjustment disorder with mixed disturbance of emotions and conduct.”

52The report outlined that your exposure to violence throughout various developmental stages has resulted in profound impacts on your personality development. Whilst you don’t meet the criteria for PTSD, the events that have occurred in your life have caused significant distress and emotional instability.

53Mr Newton states that your offending arose out of “cognitive distortions about sexual maturity and power dynamics.” He considers that you have reasonable prospects of benefitting from therapeutic interventions such as specialist psychiatric review, ongoing drug rehabilitation and continued engagement with the Malvern Private Hospital.

54I also received letters from representatives of SHARC, the Self Help Addiction Resource Centre, and from Malvern Private Hospital as to your addiction rehabilitation treatment.  I further received character references from your partner and from Ms Pickard from SHARC which speak of your remorse and steps towards rehabilitation.   

55Your partner of 10 months states that you have “restructured [your] life in meaningful ways, prioritising stability, mental health, and accountability.”  Ms Pickard states “you have struggled with the reality of [your] actions displaying unwavering remorse, and over several support session, it is apparent [your] self-esteem and [your] view of [your] place in the world has been seriously compromised by the events related to these charges.”

Sentencing factors and considerations

56Ms Bridge, this was serious offending.  You groomed your victim from shortly after the time you met him and your behaviour quickly escalated to penetrative sex. 

57General deterrence is of paramount importance in a case such as this.  While your counsel submitted that offending of this type usually involves male offenders and some form of violence or coercion and thus general deterrence has a reduced role to play, I consider that both male and female offenders must see from the sentence I impose, that a term of imprisonment will likely flow from sexual offending against children.  Members of the community minded to act as you have done must be deterred from doing so, regardless of their gender. 

58Specific deterrence has some role to play.  Given your ‘interpersonal’ and ‘sexual neediness,’ it must be made clear to you that you cannot behave in this way.  There is a clear element of community protection at play and I note the application of the principles of just punishment and denunciation. 

59I consider that your prospects of rehabilitation are reasonable, contingent upon your engaging with mental health support and drug and alcohol rehabilitation and abstaining from illicit substance use.  Dr Newton opined that you present a low risk of recidivism and I accept this finding.    

60You have no criminal history. As there was no use of your previous good character to facilitate the offending and it did not assist you in the commission of the offence, I take this good character into consideration in mitigation of your sentence.

61It was submitted on your behalf that the principles in Bugmy v The Queen (2013) 249 CLR 571 apply in your case.  These principles contemplate a background of deprivation that may compromise a person’s capacity to mature and to learn from experience.  It was submitted that this is applicable to you given your experience of sexual offending at the age of 7 and the shadow the abuse cast upon your childhood.

62While I take this factor into account when passing sentence upon you, I do not consider this to be the sort of deprivation contemplated by Bugmy and do not propose to apply those principles in a general or a specific way. I accept that you did not have a privileged upbringing but again, this does not enliven the Bugmy principles.    

63It was further submitted that limbs 1-6 as outlined in R v Verdins [2007) VSCA 102 each have application in your case.  These principles serve to reduce an offender’s moral culpability, limb 1, have  a bearing on the kind of sentence being imposed, limb 2, moderate the need for general and or specific deterrence, limbs 3 and 4, and take into consideration the impact of imprisonment on a person’s mental health, limbs 5 and 6.  The prosecution disputed that limbs 1-4 apply, submitting that there was an insufficient nexus between your mental health condition and the offending to warrant mitigation on this basis. 

64As to limbs 1-4, it was submitted on your behalf that you were suffering cognitive distortions, reinforced and adopted in a state of distress.  You were, it was submitted, suffering from mild to moderate psychological symptoms, namely an inability to exercise appropriate judgement, make calm and rational decisions and were disinhibited as a result of your borderline personality disorder and adjustment disorder with mixed disturbance of emotions and conduct.

65The application of these factors is complicated by your drug use.  At the time of the offending you were abusing alcohol, Tapentadol and Valium and as noted by Dr Newton, your “parlous mental health and [your] substance use mutually reinforce and intensify each other.”  It is impossible to disentangle your mental health from your drug use. 

66Nothing in your presentation led Dr Newton to a conclusion that you did not know the wrongfulness of your actions or were unable to anticipate their likely consequence.  I do however accept the impact of your mental health on your decision-making abilities. 

67Overall I consider the Verdins principles to be engaged by your borderline personality disorder and adjustment disorder.  Given the competing influences of your mental health and your drug use, I moderate your moral culpability and general and specific deterrence to a modest extent.   

68The applicability of Verdins limbs 5 and 6 was conceded by the prosecution.  Given your mental health difficulties, I do consider that imprisonment will be harder for you than for an offender without such conditions.  I also accept that imprisonment is likely to see a deterioration in your mental health in relation to reduced supports and increased stressors.  I moderate the sentence accordingly. 

69It was submitted that there is extra-curial punishment in the fact that your nursing registration is unlikely to be renewed in light of these charges.  Given that your registration was suspended by AHPRA as a consequence of you stealing medication from the hospital as a nurse, before this offending, I do not consider the impact of these charges on your future in nursing to be anything more than a usual consequence of your offending.  It does not constitute extra-curial punishment.      

70The standard sentencing regime applies to charges 2-5.  Charge 2 and 3 each have a standard sentence of 4 years and charges 4 and 5 each have a standard sentence of 6 years.  The standard sentence for an offence is a sentence that, taking into account only the objective factors affecting the relative seriousness of that offence, is in the middle range of seriousness.  I must take the standard sentence into account as one of the factors relevant to sentencing.  This requirement is to be treated as a legislative guidepost having the same function as the maximum penalty.  It does not affect the established instinctive synthesis to sentencing or require or permit two-stage sentencing.

71The Court must only have regard to sentences imposed in cases where the standard sentence regime applies. I have taken the standard sentence for sexual assault of a child under 16 years and the standard sentence for sexual penetration of a child under 16 years into account as one of the factors to consider in my instinctive synthesis of all the relevant factors in your case. For the reasons previously outlined, I have determined that a sentence falling below the standard sentence is justified in your case.

72Further, where a court is sentencing and offender in respect or two or more offences, one of which is a standard sentence, the court must fix a non-parole period of 60% of the relevant term where the relevant term is less than 20 years. 

73The serious sex offender provisions also apply in your case.  If you are sentenced to a term of imprisonment on two of the charges, you are to be sentenced as a Serious Sexual Offender on the remaining charges.  In doing so, I must regard community protection as the principal sentencing purpose and may impose a sentence longer than that which is proportionate to the gravity of the offence considered in light of its objective circumstances.  Unless directed otherwise, every term of imprisonment imposed by the court on a serious offender for relevant offending must be served cumulatively unless the court directs otherwise.  It is not submitted that I should impose a disproportionate sentence and I do not intend to do so.  Further, I consider that it is in the interests of justice not to impose wholly cumulative sentences in this case as to do so would result in an unjust sentence. 

Submissions

74Mr De Witt, appearing for you, submitted that all sentencing considerations could be adequately met by the imposition of a Community Correction Order with strict conditions.

75Ms Liantzakis, for the prosecution, submitted that a term of imprisonment comprising a head sentence and non-parole period is warranted in the all the circumstances of your case.  She noted the factors in mitigation but submitted that sometimes the punitive nature of a Community Correction Order is simply not enough to address the gravity of the offending. 

76The prosecutor referred me to several ‘comparative’ cases, one being DPP v Allen [2020] VSCA 292 where the female offender was resentenced to a term of imprisonment of 4 years with a non-parole period of 2 years on an appeal on the basis of manifest inadequacy on a single charge of sexual penetration of a child under 16 under care, supervision or authority. 

77The other two cases referred to by the prosecutor were from this court, namely DPP v Woods [2020] VCC 1133 and DPP v Beavis (a pseudonym) [2023] VCC 39.  Woods involved 2 charges of sexual penetration of a child under 16 and resulted in a sentence of 4 years 2 months with a non-parole period of 2 years 6 months.  Beavis involved a charge of sexual penetration of a child under 16, grooming and other offences and resulted in a sentence of 3 years 9 months with a non-parole period of 2 years.  In both cases the female accused were teachers/ teacher’s aides at the complainant’s school, unlike in your offending.

78Mr De Witt relied on the case of DPP v Ooms [2023] VSCA 207 in which the female teacher was sentenced to a 4 year Community Correction Order for four charges of sexual penetration of a child aged 16 or 17 under care, supervision or authority which was found to be within the range open to the sentencing judge.   

79I take all of the cases I was referred to into consideration when considering current sentencing practices. 

80While I did not agree that a Community Correction Order alone would meet all sentencing considerations, I had you assessed for such an order with a potential combination sentence in mind.  The assessor found that you are suitable for an order and a Mental Health Advice and Response Service (MHARS) report found you to be suffering moderate mental health issues.

81Having given the matter further consideration however, I find that such a sentence is not open due to the gravity of the offending and I intend to impose a head sentence and non-parole period. 

Disposition

82On charge 1, grooming for sexual conduct with a child under the age of 16, you are sentenced to 12 months imprisonment. 

83On charge 2, sexual assault of a child under the age of 16, you are sentenced to 6 months imprisonment. 

84On charge 3, sexual assault of a child under the age of 16, you are sentenced to 6 months imprisonment. 

85On charge 4, sexual penetration of a child under 16 years, you are sentenced to 18 months imprisonment.   

86On charge 5, sexual penetration of a child under 16 years, you are sentence to 18 months imprisonment. 

87I order that charge 5 be the base sentence.

88I order that 9 months of the sentence imposed on charge 1, 1 month each of the sentences imposed on charges 2 and 3 and 9 months of the sentence imposed on charge 4 be served cumulatively on each other and on the sentence imposed on charge 5.

89That makes a total effective sentence of 3 years and 2 months imprisonment. 

90I order that you serve a minimum non-parole period of 23 months before being eligible for release on parole. 

91I declare that pursuant to s.18 of the Sentencing Act 1991, you have served 11 days by way of pre-sentence detention, excluding today.

92I declare that you are a Serious Sexual Offender on charges 3-5.  This declaration is to be noted in the record. 

93Having committed 3 class two offences (charge 1-3) and 2 class one offences (charges 4 and 5) pursuant to the Sex Offenders Registration Act 2004, I direct that you be placed on the Sex Offenders Register for the remainder of your life.

94I grant the forfeiture and disposal orders sought by the prosecution.    

95Pursuant to s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991, I declare that had you not pleaded guilty, the sentence I would have imposed would have been 4 years 8 months imprisonment with a non-parole period of 3 years 2 months.    

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