Melbourne Geneticist Sentenced To 12 Years Jail In U.S.

Michael Quinn, a 33-year-old Melbourne geneticist, has been given 12 years jail time for attempting to rape a six-year-old boy whilst travelling in the US.

The geneticist was caught in May when he tried to pay US$260 (AU$342) to rape a young boy at a paedophile party in a US hotel room, which was actually a sting set up by local authorities. Police had posed online as paedophiles and pimps, offering the boy to Quinn to rape.

Quinn, wearing ankle shackles, sat in the dock weeping during sentencing, and claimed that he had never attempted to pray on a child before.

Speaking to District Court Judge John Walter he pleaded: “If you give me a second chance I won’t let you down.”

But the judge didn’t believe Quinn should have been shown leniency, and he sentenced him to the term suggested by the prosecutors, ignoring Quinn’s lawyer’s requests. According to the veteran judge, Quinn’s desire to attend the party and pay to rape a young boy was “absolutely disgusting”, “ghastly” and “despicable”.

Quinn has been in custody in the United States since his arrest, which happened on a rugby trip to the country. Quinn, a Monash University-educated IVF geneticist, was supposed to play with the Melbourne Charges rugby team in Tennessee at the Bingham Cup.

However, he was captured after posting on a social media site used by paedophiles that he was intending to be in the United States, and wanted to meet others.

He posted: “Aussie perv, heading to the US late May/June interested to meet others while I’m there. LA, Nashville, NYC.”

This message was picked up by a U.S. undercover agent, who began communicating with Quinn on the site. According to the police’s records, Quinn expressed an interest in raping a boy, and authorities organised a sting to arrest him in Los Angeles. Quinn claimed he had never molested a child before.

Lisa Shiner LaBarre, Quinn’s defence lawyer, said that her client’s severe addiction to methamphetamine had changed his thinking and created psychotic thoughts. Quinn also claimed in the courtroom that he had been abused as a child.

However, despite a county psychologist noting that Quinn was unlikely to re-offend, the judge was not “overly impressed”. He said he did not believe the cause and effect nature of Quinn’s drug addiction, or the reasoning of childhood abuse.

“The defendant had every intention of raping a boy,” he said.

This was certainly confirmed in paperwork collected by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement department. In a complaint filed by officer Aaron McClellan, Quinn had opened up about his plans, believing McClellan to be a number of paedophiles online.

“In advance of his travel, Quinn arranged to meet with a small group of like-minded men in the Los Angeles area and go with them to a hotel where they would have sex with children,” ICE agent McClellan wrote in his complaint against Quinn.

“Quinn, who expressed preference for boys aged five-10, agreed to pay $US250 an hour to be provided with a child he could sodomise, and suggested sharing a child with one of the other men.”