Ex-deputy principal's 'humiliation' over teen sex chats

A former deputy principal claims his jail sentence should be reduced after being humiliated in media reports over sending explicit chats to an undercover officer posing as a teenage girl. Damian Wanstall, 50, has called his three year and seven month prison sentence "excessive", in part because publicity around his crime was not taken into account as extra punishment. "Some allowance would be made in sentencing the respondent for the public humiliation he had undergone," he wrote in court documents seen by AAP. He was jailed in July 2023 after posting an online classified advertisement under the heading: "Any legal Indian or Filo teens want fun." The ad read: "40yo Aussie daddy seeking sexy play this weekend. Will reward. Can host discreetly Rouse Hill". He was contacted by a police officer pretending to be a 14-year-old girl and arranged what he thought was a meet-up for sex in the western Sydney suburb of Westmead. Instead, he was arrested by police with $200 in his pocket and pleaded guilty to one count of using a carriage service to solicit child abuse material. The 50-year-old has now gone to the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal to try overturn his maximum sentence of three years and seven months, with a non-parole period of two years. He has claimed Judge Andrew Colefax made numerous errors when handing down the sentence at Parramatta District Court over a year ago. The judge made a number of findings against Wanstall's credibility, including that he had lied about instructions given to his lawyer about whether the word "legal" had been omitted by crown prosecutors in evidence to the court. The judge also rejected claims made by Wanstall to psychologists about being drunk at the time of the explicit chats. These were both errors, he argues in his notice of appeal. The overall sentence is claimed to have been "manifestly excessive" because it failed to consider Wanstall's contrition and remorse for his actions or his prior good character. "The offence was an isolated incident, there was no breach of trust and there was no evidence suggesting that the applicant had misused his position," he wrote. The ex-deputy principal from the Blue Mountains also argues that because he was chatting with an undercover police officer, there was no actual victim or any real harm done. Wanstall's appeal hearing will take place on August 16. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028