Nannup basketball coach and umpire Dylan Mck Pillage jailed for sending suggestive messages to underage girls

A Nannup basketball coach and umpire who used messaging platforms to send sexually suggestive messages to two underage girls has been jailed for 14 months. Dylan Mck Pillage faced Busselton District Court on Friday after previously pleading guilty to charges of using electronic communication to procure a person aged under 16 years to engage in sexual activity, using electronic communication to expose a child to indecent matter and using electronic communication with intent to expose a child to indecent matter. The court was told Pillage, now aged 29, offended against two teenage girls he knew through his involvement in the Nannup Basketball Association as a coach and umpire in separate incidents in April 2015, and between January and June 2019. On April 17, 2015, the then-21-year-old made contact with a 13-year-old girl using the video and instant message features on Skype, speaking briefly about general matters before requesting her to send him “nudes”. The victim declined and the conversation ended. Several days later, Pillage was in contact with the victim via Skype once again, beginning their conversation by praising her on her looks before making several suggestive questions and requests like what underwear she was wearing, to take her bra off and to masturbate in front of him. Although the girl declined, Pillage sent her images of himself masturbating and continued making suggestive requests. Four years later, Pillage became friends with a 14-year-old he saw at basketball on Snapchat, sending her messages suggesting that she and her friends “would look good in a g-string”. Pillage also sent the girl an image exposing himself which caused her to become upset and to later show a friend the image. Pillage was arrested and charged in July 2020 for both of the incidents. In submissions, Pillage’s defence counsel Rhonda Parks told the court the offending stemmed from increased alcohol consumption following the breakdown of two relationships with adult women at the time of each incident. It was also submitted that since being arrested and charged, Pillage had engaged in extensive counselling, expressing remorse and shame for his actions. A psychological report prepared for the court found Pillage was “a person with an avoidant personality pattern and is likely to have had an underlying fear of anticipated rejection by others”. “Subsequent fear of further rejection by an adult female may have been somewhat assuaged by his contact with younger females, who he might have perceived would be less likely to reject him,” the report read. In sentencing, Judge Massey told Pillage his offending was opportunistic and found the circumstances did not explain his offending. “The breakdown of a relationship cannot be in any way an excuse for sending juvenile people this sort of material,” he said. “Plenty of people go through breakdowns or have grief, as I’m sure you’re aware, without resorting to this type of behaviour, and it really doesn’t make sense that you would do this in those circumstances in any event, even if it was a reaction to what had happened to you.” Pillage will be eligible for parole in January 2024.