A Mayfield man spent months chatting online with a woman, making plans to abuse her daughter, court documents reveal.
However it was not until James Kendall Newton's arrest that he discovered they did not exist - he had taken the bait in a covert police sting targeting horrific corners of the internet where the child abuse material trade exists.
Newton, 41, pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to transmit child abuse matter to himself and using a carriage service to groom or procure a person aged under 16 when he faced Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday, via video link from Bathurst jail.
According to a statement of agreed facts, Newton began chatting with a woman online in September 2022 - the conversation quickly took on a sexual tone.
The woman claimed to be a single mother who was 36 years old, who had a nine-year-old daughter.
Between September and December, 2022, Newton repeatedly sent messages to the online entity - actually a NSW Police investigator - describing the sexual things he wanted to do to the woman's child, trying to convince the woman to also take part.
Newton said in one of the messages he was "keen to share" the child and described himself as "very open minded and likes moms [sic] and daughters".
In the messages, Newton repeatedly referred to the woman's child as "princess".
The messages to the woman stopped on December 12 and detectives from the State Crime Command's Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad arrested him and raided his home in February.
They seized two smart phones, a tablet and a laptop. Forensic examination of the devices uncovered two videos containing child abuse material.
According to the statement of facts, Newton received the videos as "previews" for footage he had arranged to buy online.
The facts also said he had agreed to purchase a link containing more than 1700 child abuse material videos.
He will face Newcastle District Court on February 1 to get a sentencing date.
