Saurabh Agrawal fronts court for grooming six-year-old girl for sex

A Mill Park dad’s conversation with a covert online operative posing as a single mum centred around how he would sexually abuse her six-year-old daughter.

New dad Saurabh Agrawal was arrested at Westfield Plenty Valley Shopping Centre where he had planned to meet up with the covert operative and her daughter.

A new dad who detailed to a female covert online operative disguised as a single mother how he would sexually abuse her six-year-old daughter has been jailed.

Saurabh Agrawal, 43, of Mill Park, was arrested at the Westfield Plenty Valley Shopping Centre where he had planned to meet up with who he thought was the woman and her daughter on March 13, 2023 after engaging in three days of online communication.

Despite Agrawal’s wife giving birth to their first child in January and the fact he had no prior criminal history, Judge Pardeep Tiwana said exceptional circumstances did not exist that warranted a non-custodial sentence.

Agrawal was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison but will be released to be on good behaviour after serving six months.

He pleaded guilty in November last year to using a carriage service to groom a person under 16 and appeared for sentencing in the County Court in Melbourne on Tuesday.

Judge Tiwana said Agrawal felt isolated, struggled with insomnia and spent hours on the internet following his wife’s struggle with fertility and miscarriage.

A covert online operative posing as a single mum with a six-year-old daughter chatted to Saurabh Agrawal and later outed his offending.

On March 9, 2023, Agrawal used his ChatIW account to start an online conversation with “Sienna” who purported to be a 25-year-old female from Melbourne and the mother of a six-year-old daughter Harper, nicknamed ‘Princess’.

Judge Tiwana said Agrawal immediately focused his attention on Harper, and began detailing to Sienna the abhorrent sexual activities he wished to engage in with the six-year-old.

Agrawal described himself to Sienna as of “medium built, black hair, brown eyes, brown skin, kinky mind and a very long tounge”.

He reiterated an interest in meeting with the mother and daughter and suggested they do that on a Monday which was a public holiday.

On the morning of March 13, 2023 before Agrawal’s arrest, he requested that Sienna send a photo of her to “put his mind at ease” as he suspected she was a police officer.

She sent a full length portrait photo of a female from the neck down and assured Agarwal that she was not a police officer.

“Cool. And you will not call cops on me either?” Agrawal replied.

After his arrest, he was taken home and an examination of his mobile phone confirmed the chat between him and Sienna.

“Your conduct was calculated, it was persistent and manipulative. The fact Sienna was a covert operative and no actual child was involved is not a mitigating factor,” Judge Tiwana said.

He said the one month Agrawal served in custody following his arrest was not enough and in order to do justice to general deterrence and in light of the gravity of the offending, a period of imprisonment was necessary.