Court hears Rhian Lee Ryan used social media to threaten and manipulate girls aged 12, 13 and 14

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A 21-year-old man who used social media to threaten, blackmail and manipulate teenage girls, then sexually assault them, has been jailed for more than five years.

Rhian Lee Ryan repeatedly raped and assaulted a 14-year-old girl between December 2014 and January 2015 after contacting her via Facebook and Snapchat.

He called her a slut and a tramp, and threatened to have people beat her up in public if she did not send nude photos, which he captured via screenshots, then said he would send them to her family and post on public forums if she did not meet him.

When she went to his house, he attacked her, punching her in the ribs and biting her hand so hard he left a scar.

He forced her to stay overnight, telling her to text her mother to say she was staying at a friend’s house. He then raped her four to five times.

She had tried to leave and attempted to get him off her by kicking. She eventually escaped in the morning when he was asleep.

He also used social media to threaten to distribute explicit photos of a 12-year-old girl in January 2017.

Later that year, when he was on bail for that offence, he sexually assaulted two 13-year-old girls he had met in a park then harangued on social media.

New Zealand-born Ryan is already serving a 20-month term for sexual offending against a 15-year-old girl and on Friday was sentenced by district court of Western Australia judge, Stephen Scott, to an additional five years and four months.

Scott said Ryan’s attitude towards women was deplorable, and the demeaning and disparaging way he communicated with them was disgusting.

The court heard he sent them vile messages, calling them degrading names.

Scott said Ryan had stolen his victims’ innocence and each had been affected by the crimes “in the most distressing way”.

“It is heart-rending to hear the impact on girls of a tender age,” he said.

Scott did not accept that Ryan was genuinely remorseful or had any real insight into his offending.

“You have demonstrated complete disdain for females,” he said. “You have traumatised these girls.”

Scott also criticised social media companies, saying their platforms allowed Ryan to commit his crimes.

The court heard Ryan, who has a son from a one-night stand, told police he was addicted to social media, had racked up 330,000 posts over five years and considered himself “Facebook famous”.

The prosecutor said Ryan was 17 at the time of the first rape, and “he appears to have ingrained misogynist attitudes”.