26-06-2025
Court hears man watched excessive amounts of pornography before bestiality offences
A Northern Rivers man has avoided jail time after he admitted to multiple bestiality offences on the NSW far south coast.
Warning: This story contains details that some readers may find confronting.
Joel Kerim appeared in Bega District Court for his sentencing hearing on Thursday after he pleaded guilty earlier this year to four counts of bestiality as well as producing and disseminating bestiality material.
The offences included the 30-year-old taking photos of himself sexually abusing a female horse at a farm at Frogs Hollow, near Bega, in 2023.
"He told police he was in a bad frame of mind at the time," Judge Andrew Haesler told the court.
"His regret for his behaviour is clear to me."
Judge Haesler told the court Kerim suffered from a pre-existing paraphilia, or atypical sexual interest, and had been consuming "extensive pornography", including bestiality, for 12 months before the abuse of the animal began.
Kerim's barrister, John Masters, told the court his client was raised in a "very strict religious home", did not mix with other children growing up, and had begun experimenting sexually with his wife after becoming married.
"He was on a 'teach himself' regime when he hit the age of 20," Mr Masters told the court.
Judge Haesler told the court Kerim, who is originally from Queensland, had purchased the Frogs Hollow farm with money from a work compensation payout for a spinal injury and was living with his wife when the abuse began in 2023.
He told the court that Kerim's ever-increasing use of pornography over time led to the offences.
The abuse occurred multiple times on the property over several months before he approached church elders for guidance in January last year and handed himself in to police, Judge Haesler told the court.
Judge Haesler told the court that Kerim was disciplined and "ostracised from the church he has been a life-long member of" after approaching them for help, and that he was likely suffering "Biblical punishments".
Kerim told the court from the witness stand that he had struggled since being shunned by church elders, and had been forced to move from the far south coast to a Tweed Heads caravan park after media coverage of the abuse impacted his work opportunities.
Judge Haesler told the court Kerim's version of events may be disputed when his co-accused and then wife Mikayla Kerim faces trial later this year charged over her alleged involvement.
The judge handed Kerim a reduction in his sentence for giving evidence at Ms Kerim's trial, his early guilty plea and good character, telling the court that full-time custody would not help his rehabilitation.
Kerim was sentenced to a 15-month intensive corrections order, and ordered to undertake 200 hours of community service and sex offender rehabilitation programs.
