{"id":580511,"date":"2026-04-02T10:13:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/580511\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T10:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:13:12","slug":"mickayla-kerim-avoids-jail-time-for-being-accessory-to-bestiality-offences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/580511\/","title":{"rendered":"Mickayla Kerim avoids jail time for being accessory to bestiality offences"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">A NSW far south coast woman has avoided jail time after admitting to being an accessory to bestiality offences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Warning: This story contains details that some readers may find confronting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mickayla Kerim, 29, pleaded guilty to two charges related to bestiality and two counts of concealing a serious indictable offence.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The bestiality offences relate to a female horse at a property at Frogs Hollow, near Bega, between 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">In the Sydney District Court on Thursday, Judge Miiko Kumar said Ms Kerim reported to police in January 2024 that her then-husband, Joel Kerim, had been committing acts of bestiality on a horse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">She also admitted to sending photos of the horse&#8217;s genitalia via text to her husband and concealed his sexual abuse of the mare.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A road sign on a country road.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/6a397f28d6b257f2c8f3dd528d02fb52.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">The offences took place at a property at Frogs Hollow, south of Bega. (ABC South East NSW: Isla Evans\u00a0)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Joel Kerim was sentenced in June 2025 after pleading guilty to four counts of bestiality involving the same horse.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">He was sentenced to a 15-month intensive corrections order and ordered to undertake 200 hours of community service and sex offender rehabilitation programs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Judge Kumar described Joel Kerim as the principal offender of bestiality, but said Ms Kerim&#8217;s decisions to send text messages encouraged his actions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The court heard the couple married in 2017, but their sexual relationship &#8220;slowed&#8221; and Ms Kerim experienced abuse since 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Judge Kumar accepted that Mrs Kerim suffered from domestic violence and coercive control, which was a contributing factor in her offending behaviour.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Kerim has not been charged with any offences against Ms Kerim.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A man in a suit walking along with his hand covering his face.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/e4b451daecb3753ce759427905f871c0.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Joel Kerim was sentenced to a 15 month Intensive Corrections Order in 2025. (ABC South East NSW: Floss Adams)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Judge Kumar said that at the time of offending, Ms Kerim was suffering from a major depressive disorder.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The court heard Ms Kerim felt unable to leave the marriage or complain to the police earlier due to her religious upbringing and fear of her husband.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Judge Kumar told the court that Ms Kerim&#8217;s assistance and admissions to police were &#8220;significant&#8221;, &#8220;truthful, complete and reliable&#8221;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">During sentencing, Ms Kerim appeared via audio-visual link from her defence lawyer Tony Cullinan&#8217;s office, alongside her parents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">She was convicted on all four charges and sentenced to a Conditional Release Order for a period of 12 months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Under the sentence, Ms Kerim will be required not to commit any offence, be supervised by a community corrections officer and continue to engage with a psychologist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Judge Kumar said Ms Kerim&#8217;s level of criminality was &#8220;substantially lower&#8221; than Mr Kerim&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Judge Kumar said Ms Kerim&#8217;s prospects of rehabilitation were &#8220;excellent&#8221; because of her lack of criminal history, maintained employment, support of her parents, and her report to police of the co-offender&#8217;s conduct.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The judge also took into account that media coverage and threats made to her on social media amounted to &#8220;extra pro curial punishment&#8221;, including &#8220;humiliation&#8221; and &#8220;ostracism&#8221; in the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A NSW far south coast woman has avoided jail time after admitting to being an accessory to bestiality&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[81911,1108,284525,1105,43,284524,44,40205,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-580511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-bestiality","9":"tag-court","10":"tag-frogs-hollow","11":"tag-guilty","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-mickayla-kerim","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-sentencing","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}