Sex offender groomed teen, court told

By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS

A CONVICTED paedophile has avoided extra jail time despite admitting to
grooming a girl, 15, for a rendezvous at a Dandenong motel.

Mark Aarin Shedden is serving a five-year jail sentence handed
down by the County Court last year for indecent acts against three girls
aged nine to 15.

In Dandenong Magistrates Court on Monday, July 22, he admitted to
three counts of breaching an intervention order by phoning the teenager
350 times and meeting her at a motel last year.

At the time she was in the “care of the Department of
Human Services” and protected by an intervention order taken out by her
mother, prosecutor Senior Constable Anthony Ciardullo said.

Defence lawyer Samantha Dixon argued the “matters” pre-dated his
County Court appearance and if heard in that court would have had no
bearing on his five-year jail term.

Magistrate Gerard Bryant delivered a concurrent 12-month jail sentence, rather than adding it to his jail term.

Shedden will be eligible for parole from September 23, 2015.