Shegu Bobb, 27, leaves the ACT Courts during his jury trial. Photo: Albert McKnight.
CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to alleged child sexual abuse.
A trial has begun against a man alleged to have met an 11-year-old girl on an online dating application before he sexually assaulted her in his car.
Shegu Bobb, 27, pleaded not guilty to nine charges when his ACT Supreme Court jury trial began on Monday (16 June) over the alleged abuse from February 2020.
The girl set up an account on the dating app Badoo where she claimed to be 19 before Mr Bobb, then aged 21, sent her a message asking her how old she was, prosecutor Marcus Dyason alleged during his opening submissions.
After a call between them, Mr Bobb allegedly sent her a message saying, “Can’t believe you’re that young”.
He allegedly began discussing sex with her over the app, including saying he knew she was a “virgin”.
“Can you teach my how to have sex? [sic]” the girl asked.
“Yes I definitely can,” he allegedly replied.
When she mentioned his age, he allegedly said, “Yeah, that’s a fairly huge gap between us, hope you don’t tell anyone”.
“By the way, just be careful because you could find creeps and stalkers. I’m not like that, trust me,” he also allegedly said.
Mr Bobb is alleged to have repeatedly asked the girl to send him photos of her genitals and she did so three times, while he allegedly sent her photos of his own genitals twice.
“This will be our secret, tell no one,” he allegedly told her during their conversations.
He allegedly made a plan with her to meet up and drive somewhere to have sex.
But Mr Dyason alleged that after he picked her up in her car, she was “too scared to talk” while he was driving. So she started sending him messages via Badoo, sending phrases like, “I’m so scared” and “I can’t do this”.
It is alleged Mr Bobb drove them to an empty car park in Canberra where he indecently touched her, kissed her and digitally raped her.
That night, he allegedly messaged her to say, “I’m sorry for what happened, I don’t know what came over me”.
Mr Dyason said the girl first told a version of her allegations to a friend at school the day after the alleged assault, then she also told a teacher before the matter was reported to police.
He said on the first occasion she spoke to police, she didn’t tell them she had arranged to meet Mr Bobb via Badoo because, she claimed in a later interview, she was scared it would make it “a bit more my fault”.
He also said the girl’s mother discovered the Badoo messages on her daughter’s phone.
Jurors heard the prosecution would also refer to an alleged conversation between Mr Bobb and his neighbour, in which he said he was speaking to a young girl in his car before she said, “I can’t do this”, and got out of the vehicle, but at the time he thought she was over 18 because he’d met her on a dating site.
Mr Bobb’s charges are three counts of using a person for child abuse material, two counts of committing an act of indecency on a person under 16, two counts of using a carriage service to procure a person under 16, one count of sexual intercourse with a person under 16 and one count of transmitting indecent communication to a person under 16.
The jury trial continues before Justice Belinda Baker.
If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT 02 6280 0900, the Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call Triple Zero.
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