James Stuart Logue, 29, pleads guilty to sex tourism, child porn charges
A self-styled “Sugar Daddy” has dashed from a Canberra court covering his face with paper after pleading guilty to sex tourism and child porn charges.
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A 29-year-old has pleaded guilty to sex tourism and child porn charges before again dashing from the ACT Magistrates Court in shame.
James Stuart Logue on Thursday pleaded guilty to preparing or planning to engage in child sex offences outside Australia, possessing child abuse material and using a carriage service for child abuse material.
Commonwealth prosecutors withdrew four of the charges Logue was facing.
Logue, of Farrer in Canberra’s southern suburbs, will next front the ACT Supreme Court in March when dates for his sentencing proceedings are likely to be set.
Defence lawyer Paul Edmonds flagged Logue’s guilty plea last month.
Mr Edmonds said he was still negotiating the final version of facts on which his client will be sentenced.
A raid on Logue’s house and a search of his phone last year revealed Tinder messages in which he said, “I want child … find for me and I pay you and girl” and “I like small skinny girl … the younger she is the more money I pay”, court records show.
When asked if he was “just here travelling for sex”, Logue replied “yes”.
Logue, a chef, also said he was looking for a girl as young as eight.
One of his dating profiles was named “Sugar Daddy”.
According to the records, Logue also wrote: “I want child, I want sex with child”.
Logue was in Thailand at the time and the conversation was flagged by the dating site, which reported it to US authorities, who passed on the tip-off to their the Australian Federal Police.
Logue had travelled to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in the year before his arrest, passport records revealed.
Australian investigators also found child abuse material at Logue’s suburban house which, in an interview, he denied making.
He said he last looked at the abhorrent material “years ago”
He also denied acting on his plans to have sex with children, saying it was little more than a “fantasy”.
He said he went to Thailand to “party” with friends.
Logue declined to comment on his case yesterday as he for the second time ran from the court building past waiting cameras.