Michael Robert Amery to be sentenced on underage grooming charge
A western Sydney man has pleaded pleading guilty to sending messages to what he thought was a 14-year-old girl about the sex acts he wanted to perform on her.
Penrith
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A man who attempted to groom a 14-year-old girl for sex over social media will be sentenced later this year.
Michael Robert Amery, 48, of Werrington, faced a charge of using a carriage service to procure someone under the age of 16 for sexual activity in Penrith District Court on Friday.
Amery has pleaded guilty to the charge after originally denying that the contact was for sexual purposes.
Police said detectives from the Child Abuse and Sex Crime Squad’s Child Exploitation internet Unit were notified of online communication between Amery and a 14-year-old girl in August last year.
Detectives then began communicating with the man posing as a 14-year-old girl, and said Amery engaged in conversations about sexually-explicit acts he wanted to perform on the child.
Following further investigation, Amery was arrested by Strike Force Trawler detectives at a Penrith shopping centre in September last year.
Police say Amery had been in contact with the girl and detectives for almost two-and-a-half months at the time of his arrest, with contact starting on June 25.
He was refused bail in Penrith Court on September 6, and has remained behind bars ever since.
Amery’s matter was briefly mentioned in the District Court on Friday morning.
Judge Mark Buscombe ordered a sentencing assessment report on Amery, and both parties must file and exchange bundles and subjective material by June 18.
Amery will be sentenced via audiovisual link on June 22.