Published October 2025
Sex offender reporting breach WA – prosecution discontinued
Perrella Legal successfully represented a young man charged with failing to comply with his sex offender reporting obligations in Western Australia. The charge arose after he inadvertently missed an appointment with the Sex Offender Management Squad (SOMS).
Despite his immediate attempts to contact police and explain the oversight, the prosecution proceeded with the charge. We prepared submissions addressing the circumstances of the breach and the public interest in prosecuting. The prosecution accepted our submissions and discontinued proceedings, avoiding a further criminal conviction.
Our former client, a young man in his 20’s, called us after being charged with failing to comply with his reporting obligations, which came into effect after he was convicted of sexual offending against a child. A year into his reporting period, and after a week of working overtime with very little sleep, he forgot to attend a Friday appointment with the Sex Offender Management Squad (SOMS). On realising his slip-up, our client immediately call SOMS but their office was closed. Over the weekend he continued trying to contact SOMS via email and telephone to explain his oversight was not deliberate, to no avail. First thing on Monday morning he contacted SOMS, who were not dissuaded from proceeding to charge our client for non-compliance. Our client desperately wished to avoid another conviction against his name. We provided the prosecutor with a submission to discontinue the charge, who ultimately agreed there was no public interest in prosecuting our client and discontinued proceedings against him.