Judge Calls Sicko’s Attempt to Lure Children into Van with Ice Cream ‘A Parent's Worst Nightmare’, Locks Him Up For 5 Years

A man who attempted the kidnapping of numerous children including a two-year-old girl has been sentenced to five years in jail .

Knewz.com has learned that the then-19-year-old Brendan Lee McDonald from Perth, Australia , tried to lure the kids into his van with the promise of ice cream.

When he tried the tactic on a two-year-old girl in September 2022, her 12-year-old brother told him to “[f***] off”.

According to reports, McDonald then reached out and tried to grab the toddler by the shoulder.

When this failed, the offender sat in his car and waited at the scene. When the children’s father arrived, McDonald told him the person who had tried to grab his daughter had fled.

The presiding Judge Craig Astill praised the boy’s defense of his sibling saying that it was “no small feat for a 12-year-old to say that to a 19-year-old.”

Astill further noted that a child going missing was “literally a parent’s worst nightmare,” and that McDonald – who on the same day drove to a nearby elementary school where he tried to lure in two or three other minors – deliberately “intended to deprive a parent of their child.”

Astill, who was unable to establish what the miscreant’s intention for the kids would have been had he succeeded, leaned into the fact that tried to prey on individuals no older than 12.

“You targeted young, vulnerable children,” he told McDonald, who claimed to have no memory of his actions on that day as he was on marijuana and a psychedelic drug called LSD.

McDonald told the court that he used these drugs to deal with the feeling that he was not worth anything to anyone.

Notably, McDonald’s was already on law enforcement ’s radar at the time and had just been released on bail. The crime he had been accused of then was the rape of a 15-year-old girl.

Said victim has since telegraphed feelings of a “loss of innocence” and “anxiety, depression, and PTSD.”

Astill pointed out that McDonald – who has since been banned from any interaction with individuals under the age of 16 – was well aware of the damage he had inflicted, saying “You knew she was a child and you did this to her anyway.”

In the latest case, McDonald, who has been in jail since September 2022, is facing five years in prison and will be allowed to apply for parole in 2025

He will also be placed on Australia’s version of the sex offender register and remain there for 15 years, according to the country’s ABC News .

According to a report by the Australian Government-subsidized Institute of Health and Welfare , the country is no stranger to predators.

A study between 2021 and 2022 found that 14% of its population “18 years and over [at the time] experienced sexual violence since the age of 15.”

Notably, 85% of the victims were female, and 13% of the country’s population was at some point preyed upon by men.