LA District Court sentences former Melbourne amateur rugby player Michael Quinn 12 years prison term for child sex offences

The Los Angeles District Court sentenced on Tuesday former Melbourne amateur rugby union player Michael Quinn 12 years prison term for child sex offences. He was arrested in May in the US in a sting operation to have sex with a six-year-old boy.

In July, Quinn, a graduate of Monash University and a geneticist at an IVF clinic in Melbourne, admitted to the court he went to the US to have sex with a minor. The Melbourne Chargers player used playing in the Bingham Cup, a gay-friendly rugby tournament, as his excuse to go to the US.

Former teammates of Quinn said they are angry toward him since they are now the target of online trolls after he was arrested. After being accused by stranger and even family members of harbouring a paedophile, many of them had to undergo counselling after participating in the Nashville tournament, ABC reports.

Even before Quinn’s arrest, US law enforcers confiscated materials from his belongings in a Hollywood home rental he shared with four other players. He planned to attend a paedophile party in an LA hotel room and pay a pimp to allow him to rape a young boy which the District Court Judge John Walter described as “absolutely disgusting,” “ghastly” and “despicable”

Theage reports that Quinn looked pale and gaunt after spending five months in jail. His parents, Anna and John Quinn, flew to LA to support their 33-year-old son. Quinn asked Walter to give him a second chance since he never molested a child before the arrest and the sting was the first chance offered him. But Walter sentenced him to 12 years which is how long the prosecutors recommended, higher than two years what Quinn’s lawyer asked.