Former tour manager for The Getaway Plan, paedophile John 'ZIMMO' Zimmerman has gotten off rather lightly after finally being sentenced today to a maximum of 16 years gaol with a minimum stretch of 12 years for 87 charges against 55 girls, the majority of who are under the age of 16 years old. Recently reunited, The Getaway Plan have been very quiet about the whole affair, as have Zimmo's supporters who were quick to call bullshit on the charges.
Article below from The Age. Original can be read HERE
55 girls: Band manager jailed for child sex offences
A former band manager who groomed 55 teenage girls online and sexually assaulted many of them has been jailed for 16 years.
John Raymond Zimmerman, 26, began his offending in 2006 when he was aged 21 and became the tour manager for Australian band, The Getaway Plan.
In sentencing this morning, Judge Richard Maidment said the band had many female teenage fans and used a Myspace account to promote itself which Zimmerman had access to.
He used that account to establish contact with his victims and later used that account, his personal account and a fake account to demand to meet up with teenage girls for sex.
All but two of his 55 victims were aged between 12 and 15 years old. The other two were aged 16 and 17.
Judge Maidment said that Zimmerman would chat to the girl online and encourage them to use a webcam to take pictures of them without clothing or in their underwear.
He then used the fact that those photos existed to threaten his victims to have sex with him or he would release them to his parents or friends.
Zimmerman pleaded guilty to three charges of rape, 22 of sexual penetration of a child under 16, five of committing an indecent act of a child under 16, three of possessing child pornography, two of procuring a minor to make child pornography, three of procuring a minor for sexual activitiy, four of stalking, 27 of procuring a minor for sex, 12 of using a carriage service to groom a minor for sex and five of using a carriage service to menace and harass.
Zimmerman encouraged one victim, who was 14 years old, to email him pictures of herself in her underwear, Judge Maidment told the court.
After they agreed to meet, Zimmerman picked the girl up from school and sexually assaulted her in the back of his van.
He later pressured her to meet with him again, by threatening that he would reveal what she had previously done with him.
Judge Maidment said that Zimmerman used this approach with many of his victims.
Another victim was a keen fan of the band and the 14-year-old and Zimmerman spoke about the possibility about her joining the band on tour and getting to meet them.
They organised to meet and Zimmerman told her that they would do “naughty stuff” which she assumed meant kissing.
They met and afterwards she told him that she did not want to meet again. Shortly after, the band announced they were breaking up and Zimmerman offered to get the girl and a friend tickets to one of their concerts.
She was told that to get her name on the doorlist for the gig she would have to do something for Zimmerman and he told her that if she didn't have sex with him again he would tell her parents.
Judge Maidment said that girl decided to agree “just to get rid of him”.
After Zimmerman assaulted the girl he dropped her off at school and as he drove away laughed at her and shouted “slut”.
In a victim impact statement, the girl said: “I was 14 and when you're 14 you think you don't know much and you can trust people who are older than you. I was just stupid. Everytime I bring it (the incident) up I just scared and feel anxious about it. I just feel disgusted about what happened. John Zimmerman made me hate myself. I blamed myself for everything. The guilt still eats at me knowing I've let down my family”.
Judge Maidment described Zimmerman's conduct as “utterly deplorable”.
“She did what you asked her, you gratified yourself at her expense…you set about humiliating her and degrading her for no apparent reason.”
The judge said that the case illustrated the fact that teenage users of social media websites were constantly vulnerable to attack from skilled sexual offenders.
He said the promises of confidentiality, privacy and safety that the websites promote “is as beguiling as it is false”.
He said it was unfortunate that those behind such websites had not put much thought into how to protect teenage users “from predictable harm”.
Judge Maidment said Zimmerman had come from a caring and supportive background and did well at school.
He told a forensic psychologist that at the time of the offending he “had a high libido” and had no interest in providing his victims with sexual satisfaction.
The psychologist concluded that he was naïve and immature and his role with the band had inflated his sense of self importance.
Judge Maidment jailed Zimmerman for 16 years and ordered that he serve a minimum of 12 years before being eligible for parole.
He has already served 18 months of that term and will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life.
Earlier article from the Age yesterday which goes into more detail of his sickening crimes.
Original can be read HERE:
Online sex predator a parent's worst nightmare
A computer screen and an internet connection was all it took for John Raymond Zimmerman to shatter the lives of dozens of innocent teenage girls.
The former tour band manager of alternative group The Getaway Plan constructed a web of social networking identities to manipulate young girls into sexually explicit conversations, undressing on webcam, and sex.
The current toll, which investigators say is by no means exhaustive, stands at 55 victims, aged between 12 and 17, across four Australian states.
Advertisement: Story continues below
More victims are expected to come forward.
Zimmerman, 26, of Frankston, is to be sentenced on Friday on 87 charges including rape and child pornography. He has pleaded guilty to all charges.
To say the self-absorbed band manager was a prolific social media user would be an understatement.
Tapping away from behind two MySpace accounts and three Facebook identities, Zimmerman personified the archetypal sex predator feared by the modern parent.
Many of his victims had clearly been educated about the dangers of online sex offenders. Indeed, some of the girls confronted Zimmerman with the illegality of his actions when they discovered his real age.
Others, even those aware of Zimmerman's ulterior motives, became powerless in the face of his increasing threats, which included publicly distributing naked photos he'd obtained of the victim, if she refused his perverted requests.
He was a parent's nightmare.
Zimmerman exploited his status as tour band manager of The Getaway Plan, trawling through the group's MySpace contacts for attractive teenage girls, "friending" them, then boasting about the perks of his job before propositioning his target.
"The young victim would be excited that they were chatting to someone from a band they followed," prosecutor Louisa DiPietriantonio told Zimmerman's pre-sentence hearing last month.
His modus operandi is a cautionary tale for all parents of teenagers, especially girls.
Zimmerman communicated mainly from two MySpace accounts — one, Zimmo, which listed accurate personal details but not his age, and a second fake account under the name Jay.
He would often contact the same victim from both accounts.
He would claim to be aged between 17 and 19 and would allay victims' concerns about any age difference, saying age did not matter.
He would ask victims where they lived, then purport to live in a nearby suburb, or if they were interstate, claim he regularly visited that state.
Having already bragged about his job title, he would boast about the amount of money he earned and once even claimed he was a driver for singer Beyonce and managed a tour for Pink.
And he would exploit a common yearning among teenage girls — the need for a sympathetic ear — by offering support and advice.
But the girls were ultimately lured by Zimmerman's promises of free tickets to The Getaway Plan's concerts, backstage passes, merchandise and cash in exchange for sexual favours.
If he met resistance, he would become angry and aggressive, blaming the victim for backing down.
In one case he sent a terrified 14-year-old multiple threatening messages, including the words "I'M GONNA FIND YOU", typed in capital letters, repeated 14 times over.
"You won't get away with this trust me," he ranted.
"You have no idea who I am. I tried to be the decent guy and you fd me over. Big mistake.
"Ignore me all you want. Block me if you dare! But I'm not going to go away either way. I know all I need to know about you to find you."
In grooming mode, Zimmerman would call his victims affectionate names like "babe", "bub" and "gorgeous".
"Often victims said that this made them feel good about themselves and made them trust him," Ms DiPietrantonio said.
But faced with a reluctant victim, Zimmerman would turn. She would become a "slut", "whore", "disgusting" or "fat".
One of those victims, who cannot be named, met Zimmerman to collect tickets he had promised her to attend the band's final tour before disbanding in 2009 (the group has since reformed).
He took the 14-year-old out of school, sexually penetrated her, ejaculated all over her uniform, then dumped her back at the school, yelling "slut" as he drove off in his van.
At Zimmerman's pre-sentence hearing, the victim bravely exercised her right to read out her victim impact statement.
With her offender sitting just metres behind her, she labelled Zimmerman a "disgusting paedophile" with "something evil growing inside him" who should never again be allowed to see the light of day.
"I want him to feel the same way he made me and so many other girls feel — powerless, angry, depressed, used and dirty."
As she returned to her seat, the victim smiled proudly at her supporters.
Zimmerman became visibly shaken and held his head in his hands.
So how did someone from a decent background with a good upbringing become such a deviant?
Zimmerman's lawyer, Julie Sutherland, told his pre-sentence hearing that the band manager became caught up in the attention from The Getaway Plan's teenage followers.
He considered himself a celebrity.
"He became addicted to the cult of young female adulation but more importantly he became addicted to the cult of celebrity," she said.
So addicted, it seems, that even after he was arrested for the first time in November 2009 and his Facebook page was shut down by police, he opened a new account and continued offending until he was arrested a second time in March 2010.
The 26-year-old now waits on remand in protective custody with some of the state's worst prisoners, facing the reality that he will spend the best years of his life behind bars.