Man Jailed for Buying Vapes for Boy to Solicit Child Sex Abuse Material

A 53-year-old man from Longwarry has been jailed for messaging teenage boys online and offering them money and vapes in exchange for child sex abuse material.

Dean Jason Milley, who has a criminal history dating back to 1994, was sentenced on Commonwealth and Victorian charges in the Latrobe Valley County Court. The court heard that Milley had bought vapes online for a 12-year-old boy in Western Australia, who had told Milley he was 14.

"In exchange for child abuse material which he made and sent you, you provided him with vapes purchased from Alibaba," Judge Diana Manova told the court.

"When you sent him the vape receipt, the boy sent you child abuse material of himself."

The court heard that Milley's conversations with the young boys were "highly sexualised and depraved" and demonstrated his desire to meet them and engage in sexual activity.

History of Abuse

The court heard that Milley grew up in a religious family and was sexually abused as a child by three people in his life.

"You're prepared to inflict that type of abuse on other children, in effect perpetuating what was done to you over and over again," Judge Manova told the court.

Milley was sentenced to a good behaviour bond in 1994 for offences including sexual penetration of a child under 10 and of a child under 16. He was also enrolled in the Exodus program, a church-run form of group conversion therapy aimed at altering homosexual behaviour.

"You were sentenced to the bond in part on the basis that you were rehabilitating yourself from your homosexual proclivities by engaging in the Exodus program," Judge Manova said.

Conversion practices have been outlawed in Victoria since 2022.

Prospects 'Not Great'

The court heard that Milley had previously been convicted of possession of child abuse material in 2006 and offences against a nine-year-old boy with a disability in 2018.

Judge Manova referred to Milley's diagnosis of paedophilic and hebephilic disorders in 2018 by forensic psychologist Jeffrey Cummins. She said his past offending and consistent failure to comply with reporting obligations as a registered sex offender showed he did not have good prospects for rehabilitation.

"Given this history, your counsel's submission that your prospects are not great is an understatement," she told the court.

Milley was charged by the Commonwealth with using a carriage service to transmit, solicit and cause child abuse material to be transmitted and using a carriage service to groom a person under 16 years. On those charges, he was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison. The Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions also charged him with failing to comply with reporting obligations and contravening a prohibition order. On those charges, he was sentenced to 15 months in prison, which he has already served in pre-sentence detention. He will be eligible for parole in three years.