A MAN has pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with his 14-year-old girlfriend.
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The registered sex offender faced Bendigo County Court today on one count of sexual penetration of a child under 16, four counts of failing to comply with sex offender reporting requirements and several dishonesty, driving and drug use charges.
The Kilmore man, 25, also pleaded guilty to five counts of breaching intervention orders against his mother and brother and one against the former girlfriend.
The court heard the man began a relationship with the teenager in October last year and had consensual sex with her four times in a three-month period.
During the relationship, the pair stole alcohol from a Castlemaine liquor store and groceries from a Bendigo supermarket.
In January this year, the man smoked the highly-addictive drug ice before breaking into a Kilmore home and stealing an iPad mini and a $45,000 Holden station wagon.
The car was later dumped in Kennington and the iPad sold for $150 on Bendigo's Buy Swap and Sell Facebook page.
The court was told the man stole the items to get money to feed his drug ice habit.
He was charged with failing to comply with sex offender reporting requirements after failing to advise the register of his address and his regular and unsupervised contact with three children.
The man's defence lawyer Russell Kelly told the court his client naturally gravitated towards young people.
He tendered two medical reports which described the man as having the cognitive functioning of a mid-to-upper primary school aged child and the social functioning of an early adolescent.
Mr Kelly said his client had started using ice heavily after a relationship breakdown with the mother of his five-year-old child in late 2010.
He said the man had some limited insight into his offending and was capable of learning.
Judge Jane Patrick adjourned the case for sentencing on Friday.