COURTROOM TWIST: FORMER TEACHER’S AIDE WHO ADMITTED TO CHI-LD ABU-SE OFFENCES INVOLVING 12 VICTIMS PLEADS FOR MERCY AS SENTENCING ENTERS ITS FINAL STAGE
A teacher’s aide who used a suite of messaging accounts to coerce young boys into sending naked pictures and videos is battling to stay out of jail.
Thomas Gottaas, 20, faced a sentence hearing on Tuesday after pleading guilty to a slew of child abuse charges against 12 victims.
Thomas Gottaas arrives for a sentencing hearing at Campbelltown Court. Morgan Reinwald/AAP
Crown prosecutor Danielle New told the Campbelltown District Court in Sydney Gottaas’ behaviour was coercive and manipulative.
“It was deviant,” New said.
“It did involve boys who evidently looked very young.
“(The offences) involved adopting a persona and then using that persona to obtain child abuse material.”
However, Gottaas’s barrister argued the young man should not be subjected to further jail time after he spent several months on remand.
The 20-year-old was supported in court by his mother, with whom he has been staying under strict bail conditions granted in 2025.
“Just because there are multiple victims … does not mean there needs to be accumulation (in sentence),” barrister James Moore said.
“He’s complied meticulously with strict bail, he won’t even go near a mobile phone.”
The agreed facts state Gottaas convinced his victims to share explicit material with him, creating several aliases on social media site Snapchat including some where he posed as a young girl.
He also communicated on the encrypted messaging app Wizz, which is designed to help people under 24 connect safely with people of similar ages.
The agreed facts state Gottaas began multiple Wizz chat chains with the message: “Want to make $$$“.
“If a child responded positively, he proposed moving the conversation to Snapchat or another encrypted platform,” the facts state.
He would then use two tactics to exploit his victims, paying them to send him videos or photos or coercing them with threats of exposing explicit material.
“Some chick is saying she has stuff of you,” he told one victim.
“She reckons she will show me if you don’t message her.”
At the time, the 20-year-old was working part-time as a teacher’s aide at a primary school in Sydney’s south-west.
Police identified five victims but seized material appearing to show another seven more who could not be identified, the facts state.
His offences include soliciting child abuse material using a carriage service and engaging in a sexual activity with a child using a carriage service.
Judge Karen Robinson said she would not be able to finalise the matter on Tuesday because there were multiple considerations to weigh.
“This is not an easy sentencing task,” she said.
Gottaas will be sentenced on September 4.
AAP
SOURCE: https://www.nine.com.au/australia-news/nsw/deviant-teacher-s-aide-coerced-young-boys-into-sending-naked-images-20260728-p60jc9.html
