Paedophile busted through social media
A Sydney man will face court today for possessing and distributing child pornography based on a fake identity used to groom victims via a social media website.
(Police 23 Mitsubishi Lancer image by Highway Patrol Images, CC2.0)
Police would not say if the website was Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, among others.
Officers were led to the man after they began investigating an inquiry into an alleged grooming offence involving a 14-year-old girl from Penrith.
Investigators were told that the teenager was due to meet a man at a Parramatta hotel next month.
Late yesterday, investigators went to a home in King Street at Penrith where they tried to find the teenage girl.
After speaking with a man at the home officers searched the home and found child pornography on a computer.
Police were able to determine that the teenager was a fictional internet alias.
The 51-year-old man was arrested and charged with the dissemination and possession of child abuse material.
The man was refused bail to appear at Penrith Local Court.
Australian Federal Police has previously said it has difficulty with pressing Facebook to help catch paedophiles using its network because the company is based in the United States.