Pedophile Stephen Bush pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to procure a 14-year-old boy

Thanks to a covert online sting, police have nabbed yet another child sex offender – a Newcastle man, already a registered offender, trying to procure a 14-year-old boy. Read what happened in court.

Bush pleaded guilty at Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday. Supplied Amy Ziniak

A Newcastle man already a registered child sex offender has again been caught, this time in an online sting with officers who acted as a 14-year-old boy.

Stephen Barry Bush, 65, from Wallsend pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to procure a person under 16 for sexual activity in Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday.

Police facts revealed Bush used the gay dating app Grindr to lure his victim, which he believed was a 14-year-old boy, but were in fact investigators with the Child Exploitation Unit.

He engaged in sexually explicit conversations and sent photos between a six day period in July last year.

Court documents detailed that Bush told the male child, “don’t be shy, I don’t bite” and said he was aged 40.

On July 2, Bush sent 12 explicit photos of a male or himself in sexual poses or engaged in sexual activities according to police facts.

Stephen Bush approached the cop prentending to be a 14-year-old boy on the gay dating app Grindr.

The 65-year-old also contacted the boy via text message, asked for inappropriate photos and made sexually explicit comments towards him.

Police facts stated that on July 5 Bush suggested the two meet up and said “try your first time” before the following day they arranged to meet.

But when Bush went to agreed location, he was instead met by police who arrested him.

Court documents revealed the 65-year-old is already a registered child sex offender when he was convicted in 1979 of indecent assault against a 10-year-old boy.

On Wednesday Bush did not apply for bail and his matters will head to Newcastle District Court next month for a sentence date to be set.