A former Liberal MP allegedly attempted to re-engage a teenager in sexual activity through multiple online accounts months after the complainant made a full police report about historical abuse allegations, Crown case documents reveal.
Rory Amon, 35, is accused of initiating further contact with the complainant when the teenager re-downloaded Grindr in July 2022, messaging from different accounts in what prosecutors describe as an alleged “attempt to re-engage the complainant in sexual activity.” Those messages allegedly continued through to 30 December 2022.
The NSW District Court released the draft Crown case statement to media on Wednesday after the former Pittwater MP unsuccessfully attempted to vary his bail conditions to allow him to move house. The documents outline prosecutors’ allegations against Amon, who has pleaded not guilty to 10 charges including five counts of having sexual intercourse with a child aged between 10 and 14.
The complainant had made a full report to police in June 2022, months before the alleged renewed contact attempts began. The court documents detail how the teenager, who was 13 at the time of alleged offences in June and July 2017, initially disclosed the alleged abuse to a teacher and was reluctant to provide details because he felt “scared and ashamed.”
Between 2019 and 2020, the complainant re-added Amon on Snapchat “as a way of attempting to resolve the incidents as ‘not a big deal’ in his own mind,” court documents state. The two allegedly recommenced sending nude images and flirting for a week or two, during which Amon told the complainant he was in his 30s and was a lawyer.
According to Crown documents, Amon was aged between 27 and 28 when the alleged offences occurred. The teenager set up a profile on a gay hook-up website and remained anonymous, lying about his age because the platform prohibited underage users.
The complainant alleges that when conversation moved to Snapchat, Amon sent him “explicit images and videos of himself” whilst he sent “similar images” back. The court documents say the complainant initially thought Amon was “in his early to mid-20s” but believes he was told Amon was 17. The teenager “lied to the accused about his age” and stated he was 15.
Crown documents indicate it was “possibly” Amon who first suggested the two meet, offering to pick up the teenager before they later met at the complainant’s home sometime in June 2017. At Amon’s suggestion, they looked for somewhere private and went into a “small shared bathroom hidden at the back of the car park.”
Amon is quoted in Crown documents as asking the teenager “have you ever done anything like this before” and replying “good” when the complainant said he had not. Prosecutors allege Amon indecently and sexually assaulted the teenager during this meeting before checking the main car park area and telling him to “wait a minute after I leave, just to make sure.”
Between one and two weeks later, Amon allegedly returned to the teenager’s home bringing a towel to place on the bathroom floor, with court documents outlining further allegations during that second meeting. The complainant blocked Amon on Snapchat within a week, and shortly after the alleged incidents “began to feel distressed.”
The document outlines prosecutors’ accusations that Amon “indecently and sexually assaulted the complainant as well as inciting indecent acts with the complainant” during the two alleged meetings. Amon awaits trial on the charges, with his Wednesday bail variation application unsuccessful. The case will proceed through the NSW District Court with trial dates yet to be set.
