THE son of a former Encourage Church Romsey pastor, Josh Emonson has been jailed for 12 months after he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in his car in February last year.
Avoiding a potentially lengthy jail time, the judge ruled that there were “exceptional circumstances,” slashing his time to 12 months.
The Judge said his actions were impulsive rather than predatory and if he had taken the case to trial, he could have received two years and eight months.
Mr Emonson told the courtroom last Wednesday that he “couldn’t stop himself” due to an adult porn addiction sustained in his teenage years.
The relationship between Mr Emonson and the victim started on a social media platform where he was asking the teen “questions of sexual nature.”
After telling her that he “would be happy to be her first” as long as “she didn’t tell anyone”, he arranged a meetup, asking her to go to the Sunbury Railway Station after attending a family funeral.
He then sexually assaulted the girl in the back of his sports car for roughly 20 minutes at a multi-level car park at Sunbury Station and then left her there at 9.19pm.
The 24-year-old is a former Encourage youth leader and worked at KidZone, the childcare centre run by the Romsey Encourage Church, around the time the offence occurred.
Following the arrests made in March last year, the church was investigated by the state’s education department and a church peak body after being made aware of comments by certain church insiders who accused its board of hiding information about the sexual assault committed.
Some members of the church and family members of Mr Emonson were in court today, and were heckled by multiple people within the gallery.
After the completion of his 12-month sentence, he will be required to complete 200 hours of community work and will be a registered sex offender for 15 years.