Dustin Diplock: Peak Hill man pleads guilty to grooming charge

Disturbing details of online conversations between a man and a person he thought was a 14-year-old boy on Facebook have been released.

A man who repeatedly had revolting sex chats with a person he thought was a teenage boy has confessed to using Facebook to groom a child for sex.

According to court documents police from the Child Exploitation Internet Unit’s dedicated Strike Force Trawler started to converse with Dustin Diplock in December 2020 on Facebook’s messenger service.

Peak Hill man Dustin Diplock. Picture: Facebook

The 39-year-old was living at Peak Hill in the NSW central west when police investigating Diplock’s behaviour posed as a 14-year-old boy on Facebook.

Now, disturbing details of the conversations that led to Diplock’s arrest have been released for the first time after he pleaded guilty to one count of using a carriage service to groom a person aged under 16 for sex.

The Dubbo News can reveal he had seven conversations with police during a nine-day period.

During one conversation Diplock asked “what would your parents say if you told them you were gay?”.

Police posing as the boy responded “not sure what they’d think about me being gay”, to which Diplock said “if it came to the worst I have a spare room”.

In other conversations revealed in court documents, Diplock commented about how he thought the recipient of the messages was attractive.

“Your handsome sweet and nice guy … you a good guy and very mature … 14yois not a kid your a young adult,” Diplock wrote.

“If I was about 20 years younger, I’d be asking you out.

“Im not asking for sex or anything you know that don’t you.”

Dustin Diplock had seven conversations on Facebook with the police who were posing as a child.

On multiple occasions Diplock asked questions like “hows your puberty going … has your hair grown in places … when u search porn what do u search for the most” and “have you got a crush on anyone”.

“Anything else you need to know young man … u ask Ill tell you,” Diplock wrote.

After discussing further acts too graphic to publish, Diplock said “best to do it when your mums not around”.

Police arrested Diplock on December 16 last year and he was charged with two offences.

The charge of using a carriage service to send indecent material to a person aged under 16 was withdrawn by prosecutors.

After accepting Diplock’s guilty plea in Dubbo Local Court, Magistrate Theresa Hamilton adjourned the case to a date in October for sentencing.

Diplock remains remanded in custody.