A “sugar daddy” plastic surgeon who preyed on girls as young as 13 for sex has been jailed for six years.

Judge Timothy Gartelmann stated on Friday that Richard Sackelariou, 70, developed an obsession with young girls after engaging with sugar daddy websites and persisted in his desires even after learning their actual ages. 

In the Newcastle District Court, the judge noted that the victim impact statements from the girls revealed ongoing fear and anxiety stemming from Sackelariou’s actions towards them.

Two of the girls had been at school when Sackelariou asked them to send explicit photos to him in return for money. 

After having sex with a 14-year-old girl, Sackelariou inquired if she was on birth control. When she said she wasn’t, he offered her $100 to purchase a morning-after pill.

He paid one girl, aged 15, more than $22,000 over about a year for sex and explicit photos and videos.

Another girl, 14, was paid about $7600.

“They (the victims) have lost their sense of trust in others and their self-confidence. They continue to suffer with guilt and shame over it,” Judge Gartelmann said when jailing Sackelariou for six years with a minimum of four years.

“The harm to all the victims must be recognised in sentencing the offender.

“Offences involving sexual exploitation of children invariably cause them harm. This makes them inherently serious.”

The judge said the six victims, aged between 13 and 15, had been vulnerable to exploitation and while there was no evidence Sackelariou used force or coercion against any unwilling victim, this did not excuse his crimes.

Sackelariou, who had practices in Sydney and Melbourne and was married with two children, paid the girls he had mostly met through the sugar daddy sites as well as on social media, including SnapChat, to join him in hotel rooms in Sydney, Newcastle and Queensland, between September 2021 and October 2022.

He pleaded guilty to 10 charges, including causing a child aged between 14 and 18 to do an act of prostitution, using a carriage service to procure someone under the age of 16 for sexual activity, possessing child abuse material and causing a child aged 14 or over to make child abuse material.

Sackelariou began using sugar daddy websites after major surgery in 2017 meant he had to wear a colostomy bag for five years.

His wife no longer wanted to have sex with him.

Judge Gartelmann accepted Sackelariou was ashamed and embarrassed by his offending and his wife had since divorced him and his two sons refused to speak to him.

The judge believed there was little chance of Sackelariou re-offending given his previous good character.

For under 25s: Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800.