A 53-year-old man faced the ACT Magistrates Court charged with grooming before he was granted bail on the weekend. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to alleged child abuse.
A prominent member of the Canberra community has been granted bail over allegations he groomed a young girl “in secret” by giving her gifts and sending her explicit messages.
Earlier this year, ACT Policing were told about an allegedly inappropriate relationship between the man, who is currently unable to be named, and the girl, who was under 16.
According to documents tendered to the ACT Magistrates Court, the man met the girl before he allegedly started giving her gifts, including an expensive watch in 2025.
When she asked why he gave the watch to her instead of to her parents, he allegedly replied, “Because I am not in love with your parents”.
He later allegedly asked her to download the Kindle app, which allows users to read e-books on their devices, and told her she could use his account to read books.
It is alleged that when they began reading the same adult romance books on their separate devices, he started making annotations on the pages, which she could see because they were using the same account.
For instance, he allegedly referenced a sentence in the book and wrote, “This is how I feel about you”.
On another occasion, he allegedly highlighted a sentence that included, “I miss you, butterfly, I love you”.
While they were reading Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, he allegedly made annotations on the descriptions of characters’ bodies, then referred to the girl’s body in the same way.
The man allegedly began sending the girl sexualised messages in January 2026, but these are too graphic to publish.
She later told police she felt disturbed by some of these alleged messages. But she was also worried about her parents finding out about them and getting into trouble.
She eventually told her parents what allegedly happened after her mother spotted a message from the man on her phone.
The man was arrested last week. When interviewed by police, the 53-year-old resident of Red Hill declined to answer any of their questions about the investigation.
He was charged with using a carriage service to procure a person under 16 and using a carriage service to groom a person under 16.
He applied for bail on Saturday (24 January), which was opposed by the prosecution.
A document tendered to the court says police were worried the man may offend if he was released on bail, partly due to how he allegedly maintained an inappropriate relationship with the girl “in secret” without her family’s knowledge.
The girl’s parents were concerned about her safety if the man were released; the girl was not worried about her safety, but police said this had to be considered in the context of the alleged relationship.
“She was provided with numerous expensive gifts and rewards, positive praise, special treatment and attention at the hands of the defendant, who was grooming her for ongoing sexual activity,” they alleged.
Police were also worried the man could leave Australia with “relative ease” given his “level of wealth”.
But Magistrate Glenn Theakston ultimately granted bail with a long list of conditions, including that the man report to a police station every day, comply with a curfew, surrender his passports, not contact or approach the girl or her family, and use only one mobile phone that can be examined by police.
While he is a prominent member of the ACT community, he is legally unable to be identified after Magistrate Theakston made a non-publication order prohibiting publication of his name, profession and business.
The matter will return to court in February.
If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT on 02 6280 0900, the Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call triple zero.
If you have been affected by sexual violence, or someone you know has, you can report it to police by attending a police station or phoning 131 444.
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