Dustin Diplock charged with grooming

A father of two allegedly sent indecent material to an undercover cop who he thought was a teen boy.

Peak Hill man Dustin Diplock has been charged with grooming. Picture: Facebook

Police have claimed a 38-year-old man charged with grooming a teenage boy recently bought a food trailer and said he intended to sell sweets to children.

The allegation was contained in documents tendered in court on Thursday when father-of-two Dustin Diplock made a brief appearance.

Police arrested the Peak Hill man in the small town on Wednesday and he was charged with one count of using a carriage service to groom a person under 16 for sexual activity and one count of sending indecent material to a person under 16.

He is alleged to have committed the offences between 9am on December 2, and 8.30am on December 10 when an undercover police officer posed as a 14-year-old boy and had conversations online with Mr Diplock.

No pleas have been entered.

Mr Diplock is the latest person to be charged by Strike Force Trawler detectives. Picture: Gaye Gerard

In Dubbo Local Court, defence lawyer Bill Dickens started the process of applying for bail on Mr Diplock’s behalf, however the application did not proceed because the court was told police provided new information about the case which needed to be examined further.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Catherine Young opposed bail and said Mr Diplock’s mobile phone was seized and police had a “strong suspicion” there was child abuse material contained within it.

“He provided the PIN to the phone and to the secure file in that phone, but the secure file password was incorrect,” she said.

“That is a concern to the prosecution.”

Mr Dickens said based on sentencing statistics, there was a 57 per cent chance Mr Diplock would be sent to jail if he was convicted and time behind bars was “far from a given”.

“As I understand it, all of these communications are said to be via Facebook and they were communications initiated by police, conducting covert operations and those communications are all in police possession,” he told the court.

“He’s a single father … his behaviour, I would suggest, would be closely monitored in that very small community.”

The case will return to court at a later date. Picture: Jedd Manning

Mr Dickens said police provided the court with one side of the conversations Mr Diplock allegedly had, and it was unclear what was said by police to elicit responses which resulted in charges being laid.

Magistrate Sharon Freund said material in Mr Diplock’s secure file could potentially be used as further evidence.

Mr Dickens said Mr Diplock was able to provide his thumb print to access the file, however Sergeant Young said that would be difficult because the phone the file was on had been taken to Sydney.

The bail application was withdrawn and the court was told a new application would be made a later date.

Mr Diplock remains remanded in custody.