A judge in Sydney has spared a former teacher's aide further prison time after he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a dozen boys online, ruling that his time on remand and strict house arrest amounted to sufficient punishment. Thomas Gottaas, 20, was released on parole from Campbelltown District Court after Judge Karen Robinson found the conditions of his bail, which she described as "quasi-custody", justified mercy, despite acknowledging the seriousness and persistence of his offending.

Gottaas, a former bartender, coerced boys as young as 11 into sending him sexually explicit material, either by paying small sums such as $30 or by catfishing them with fake profiles and threatening to distribute their images if they refused. He used aliases on Snapchat and the app Wizz to target victims, with police identifying five and finding evidence of at least seven more they could not identify. He pleaded guilty to six child abuse material offences, spent over four months on remand and 189 days under house arrest, and will remain on the child offenders register until his sentence expires in September 2029; the judge cited his autism, mental health issues and childhood trauma as factors in her decision.