A blonde temptress who used her good looks to lure a man to her home before he was robbed by her lover is set to escape jail largely because of her low intelligence.
Shanae Heers, 22, pleaded guilty in the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday to unlawful imprisonment, robbery and possessing methamphetamines and cannabis.
Heers was originally charged with luring in several men but a prosecution deal saw her only face court over a single victim.
And she escaped jail after a judge found her astonishingly low IQ required a special sentence tailored to her limited intellect.
The court heard a 36-year old man had met up with Heers after responding to her online ad inviting men to her house to hook up in the week before Christmas 2021.
The court heard her victim agreed to pay Heers for sex, but when he arrived at her Corio home in Geelong, an hour west of Melbourne, he found another man already on her couch.
The court heard Heers told the man the mystery man was her brother and they needed to leave the house as their mum was on the way home.
But when the pair made their way to his car, things turned sinister when it became clear her ‘brother’ was Heers’ lover and was working with her to rob their victim.
Shanae Heers, 22, pleaded guilty in the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday to unlawful imprisonment, robbery and possessing methamphetamines and cannabis
The court heard Heers and her lover became increasingly aggressive until he suddenly produced a gun and pointed it at their hapless victim.
He then threatened to shoot her online date in the legs if he didn’t hand over cash.
Even Heers was surprised when the gun appeared, the court heard, and told the gunman to put it down.
After stealing the man’s wallet, he was marched off to Corio Village shopping centre where Heers attempted to withdraw money with her victim’s bank card.
The court heard the bumbling crook, who the court was told has an IQ of just 63, had no idea how to use it, and forced her victim to exit his car and enter the pin number.
But while they were at the ATM, her partner in crime made off in the victim’s car, abandoning both Heers and her terrified victim.
The runaway gunman was later jailed for two years in 2022 after pleading guilty to armed robbery and related offences.
After refusing her victim’s offer to go to the local police station with him, Heers escaped the scene in a taxi with the $100 she had extracted from the ATM.
When police finally caught up with her, Heers confessed immediately and identified her partner in crime to police.
The court heard her victim agreed to pay Shanae Heers for sex, but when he arrived at her Corio home in Geelong, an hour west of Melbourne, he found another man already on her couch.
She spent 21 days behind bars before being released on bail.
Her barrister, Sandra Wendlandt, told the court her client had suffered a shocking childhood and remained ‘vulnerable’.
Now a mother of a young child, Heers continued to struggle with drug abuse, with her low intelligence qualifying her as living with a fully-fledged intellectual disability.
Judge Gerard Mullaly said it was this disability that ought to see her released back into the wild on a special community correction order tailored for low intellect criminals.
Judge Mullaly said the ‘avoidance of jail was a high priority’ in Heers’ case, due to her age, lack of prior convictions and intellectual disability.
He ordered Heers be assessed for such an order before returning to court for sentence in February.
Heers’ bail was extended to that date.
