Salisbury North man Iain Macrae denied bail in court over alleged child sexual offences

A factory worker has faced court after being charged by senior detectives with serious child sexual offences in a sting operation.

A northern suburbs factory worker has been refused bail after he allegedly sent sexually explicit messages, requests and photos to undercover elite police officers thinking they were young girls.

Iain Macrae, 39, appeared via video link from custody after he was arrested for allegedly contacting two undercover officers on the communication platform Kik.

The court and Magistrate Lana Chester heard Mr Macrae sent messages to one officer over the course of four months, and they progressively became more graphic.

“Covert officer one reminded the defendant she was 14, to which he replied ‘I’m okay with it if you’re okay with it’,” police prosecution said.

Mr Macrae, of Salisbury North, is charged with two counts of communicate to make a child amenable to sexual activity and one count of knowingly being in possession of child exploitation material. He is yet to enter any pleas to the charges.

Police obtained a warrant for his arrest, and attended Mr Macrae’s Salisbury North home where a mobile phone allegedly was found with the Kik application installed and logged in to the account used to allegedly contact both officers.

The phone allegedly contained child exploitation material, and was seized.

The court heard the man sent an officer close-up images of his tattoos when asked about them.

Police prosecution told the court investigations were ongoing and there were concerns that if released on any form of bail, Mr Macrae could tamper with evidence stored in the digital cloud.

The duty solicitor representing Mr Macrae told the court he had issues with reading and writing – demonstrated by the “very basic, very simplistic” language used in the alleged messages.

“It doesn’t appear that (the alleged communication) has been written by a person that necessarily has the capacity or sophistication to access the cloud and delete material,” defence said.

The court heard Mr Macrae had lost his employment working a factory and driving forklifts six months ago due to ongoing issues with depression, but had recently acquired a care plan to treat the condition.

Ms Chester denied bail due to the serious nature of the allegations and strength of the case against him.

He was remanded in custody until later this year.

“SAPOL with the assistance of their partners will leave no stone unturned in detecting and prosecuting the perpetrators who target the vulnerable,” Detective Chief Inspector Matthew Lyons said.

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