St Andrews predator Mark Ward pleads guilty to having sex with teenage boy

Life in the sky for a Qantas flight attendant is over after he admitted to having sex with a 14-year-old boy. Now the former NSW Police officer is facing years behind bars.

St Andrews man Mark Ward pleaded guilty to multiple charges in Campbelltown Local Court on Wednesday. Picture: Facebook

A former cop-turned-flight attendant groomed a teenage boy through a gay dating app before pressuring him to have sex in the minor’s bedroom while his family were out.

The vile conduct, which extended to possessing child abuse material and sending lewd images to an undercover police officer pretending to be a child, can be exposed after Mark Ward admitted to multiple offences at Campbelltown Local Court on Wednesday.

The southwest Sydney pedophile appeared in court via videolink from Parklea jail to plead guilty to having sexual intercourse with a child, using a carriage service to send indecent material to a person under 16 and possessing child abuse material.

Documents tendered in court state Ward contacted the victim on Grindr in 2017 at which point the predator was no longer with the NSW Police and was working as a flight attendant for Qantas.

Ward pushed the interactions with the year 7 boy onto Snapchat where he would send pictures in his police uniform as well as asking the child questions about sexual intercourse.

Mark Ward was a flight attendant during the period of his offending. Picture: Facebook

The documents state he convinced the boy to let him come over to have sex and said “that’s cool with me” after the victim reiterated his age.

Ward performed oral sex on the 14-year-old before the offender positioned himself on the child’s bed where he was sodomised.

The documents state Ward pleaded for the boy to continue until they both ejaculated, however, the victim forced him to leave fearing his family were about to return home.

The documents state the victim did not disclose the incident until 2023 when he told a friend he had been “with someone with a larger age gap”, adding he had sex with “a guy in his 40s or 50s” when he was underage.

“What the f--k, you need to tell somebody,” the friend said.

The victim reported Ward to police with documents stating officers set up a fake Grindr profile of a 14-year-old geolocated in Campbelltown in an effort to catch the creep.

Mark Ward was busted grooming an undercover cop posing as a minor on Grindr. Picture: Getty Images

Despite being more than half a decade on from abusing the boy, the sting was successful with Ward messaging the covert cop asking for “nudes”.

The documents state Ward sent multiple naked images including one in a black g-string as well as sexually charged messages.

“[I’m] with a friend... we’re watching porn and he has a couple of fingers stuck in my aaa (sic),” Ward said.

Police arrested Ward in mid 2023 at his St Andrews home where they seized a laptop, two iPhones and an iPad.

Court documents state police accessed Ward’s Telegram account and found messages with a user named “no lim perv”.

“Love a young one to destroy my hole,” Ward messaged.

In a later message, Ward said he could “tempted” by boys younger than 12 with police also finding nine child abuse material files in his possession including a video of a blindfolded pre-pubescent boy performing oral sex on a man.

Ward will be sentenced in Campbelltown District Court later this year.

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