I sent smut, court hears

Hamish Heard
A former local junior cricket coach yesterday admitted in court to sending a series of torrid sexual messages to a young girl during a relationship lasting more than a year.
Andrew James Harmes, 32, of Coolidge Street, Corio, pleaded not guilty in Geelong County Court to three counts of sexual penetration of a 13yearold female cricketer and a further three of committing indecent acts.
Under crossexamination from Crown Prosecutor Tim Doherty, Harmes agreed he had tonguekissed and cuddled the victim on numerous occasions.
He also admitted sending four letters and dozens of sexually explicit text messages to the teenager while he was coaching junior and women’s cricket teams and serving as captain of the Geelong club’s first 11.
However, the defendant denied allegations he fondled and kissed the girl’s breasts or digitally penetrated her in his car while parked at Corio Quay.
Harmes told Mr Doherty and the jury he was in a loving relationship with the girl when the pair exchanged explicit messages referring to his desire to have oral and vaginal sex with her and to touch her nipples.
The defendant agreed he had sent the girl a sexuallysuggestive message three months after his first police interview on allegations he had digitally penetrated the teenager.
“Naked because I’m getting really hard and I’m going to have a w—k,” the message said.
In another message Harmes wrote: “I want to f—k you slow and then hard”.
He admitted kissing the girl at the cricket clubrooms and also outside the Sphinx hotel and inserting his tongue in her mouth.
He agreed their correspondence was “inappropriate” but vehemently denied touching her genitals or breasts.
“I only meant that I wanted to have sex with her when she was older,” Harmes told Corio detectives during a taped interview played to the court.
He also admitted giving the teenager a mobile phone so he could continue talking to her after the girl’s parents confiscated her own phone after becoming suspicious of their relationship.
Mr Doherty and defence for Harmes, Daryl Wraith, were preparing their closing statements to the court when the Independent went to press yesterday.