Cricket club veteran escapes jail after sending intimate pictures to teenage girl

A cricket club veteran from Melbourne has escaped jail after preying on a young girl.

Leigh Howes, 33, last week pleaded guilty to multiple charges including encouraging a girl under 16 for sexual activity and faced the Melbourne Magistrates' Court for sentencing on Monday.

The member of Epping Cricket Club used social media app Snapchat to encourage the teenage girl to send him sexual pictures.

The court heard evidence of messages which included the fiend saying: 'F*** I forgot how beautiful your boobs are'.

The victim sent him a photo which he subsequently screenshotted. He then asked her to 'go lower'.

Howes met the child while volunteering at the cricket club and asked her if she was 'shaved or hairy'.

The girl refused to send Howes any more photos after telling him to 'stop saving my snaps' because 'you'll go to jail'.

He also sent her photographs of his penis.

Howes escaped jail and was placed on a two-year community correction order. Magistrate Kay Robertson also made him a registered sex offender for 15 years and told Howes to report any alleged criminal behaviour by former associates to the police.

He made a late submission to the court highlighting a media article which to him receiving 'nasty' and 'distressing' phone calls from 'former friends and associates'.

However the magistrate insisted 'people had to trust the justice system'.

'She has done nothing wrong … she has absolutely done nothing wrong … it's incredibly damaging for her future … ,' she said of his 'horribly wrong' behaviour.

'There is no excuse to break the law as you have done … you will be punished … volunteering, working at schools, that is where people need to have a clean record …

'And of course the reputation of that cricket club will also suffer as a result of what you have done.'

Howes's home was raided by police earlier this year where they discovered the lewd images. He admitted the penis photos were his and said he committed the behaviour because he was 'sad'.

'I have struggles in my life,' Howes told police. 

He assisted the club on game day as well as in the canteen. He also joined a local school's maintenance department. 

A psychological report found that Howes was an 'average risk' of committing an offence again.

'This a (then) 32-year-old man and … girl. … That is not a 'friendship' that is inappropriate …,' the prosecution submitted as they fought for a jail sentence.

'It is offensive to the community and requires denunciation …'