Strike Force Trawler investigators have charged a man over the alleged online procurement of a child for sex, NSW Police say.
Detectives from the Sex Crimes Squad’s Child Exploitation Internet Unit (CEIU) conduct ongoing investigations into the sexual abuse and exploitation of children facilitated through the internet and related telecommunications devices under Strike Force Trawler.
In November 2017, strike force detectives began engaging online with a man from the Hunter region.
Police will allege in court the man believed he was speaking to a 14-year-old boy and engaged in sexually-explicit conversations, sent indecent and pornographic images and made arrangements to meet in person.
Following extensive investigations, Strike Force Trawler investigators arrested a 37-year-old man at a home in Cessnock, about 12.15pm yesterday (Friday 2 March 2018).
Shortly after the arrest, detectives executed a search warrant where they seized a mobile phone and a laptop computer.
The man was taken to Cessnock Police Station and charged with use carriage service to groom a person under 16 years for sexual activity, and using a carriage service to transmit indecent material to a person under 16 years of age (x3).
He was refused bail to appear at Newcastle Local Court today (Saturday 3 March 2018).
Inquiries are continuing.
Regular covert online investigations are conducted by the CEIU, and police in NSW work closely with their law-enforcement colleagues both interstate and overseas.
Anyone with information about internet predators should call Crime Stoppers.
