Man tried to procure a child online. 'She' turned out to be an undercover cop

CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to child abuse.

A former IT professional has admitted trying to procure a child online, although in reality this ‘child’ was an undercover cop.

Hector Ulises Contreras had sexual conversations online with a police officer posing as a 14-year-old ‘girl’ between May and July 2022.

This ‘girl’ repeatedly told him she was 14, but he continued speaking to her.

He talked about meeting her, asked if she could “skip school” and spoke about various sexual acts, prosecutor Keegan Lee told the ACT Supreme Court during a sentencing hearing on Thursday (3 April).

Mr Lee said when police arrested Contreras in July 2022, he said, “It never happened because I hadn’t gone to Sydney yet”.

The prosecutor argued it was clear he had been “seeking out sexual gratification”.

“He was sexually attracted to a 14-year-old girl,” he said.

Mr Lee said the conversations were “highly sexualised” and included Contreras sending the ‘girl’ pornographic material.

“He knows she’s 14 yet continually engages with her in these kinds of conversations,” he said.

Contreras gave different reasons for why his offending occurred, Mr Lee said.

For instance, he said the ‘girl’ returned his communication quickly, and he was curious. He was also sexually frustrated at the time, and he thought it could have been an older woman pretending to be young.

The court also heard he told police there were times when he wasn’t sure if it was real.

Defence barrister Kieran Ginges said his client had a difficult upbringing after moving to Australia from Chile.

Mr Ginges said his client was in a difficult stage of his life when he had been speaking to a number of women online in 2022, “perhaps looking for intimacy”.

The barrister pointed out that when police seized his client’s electronic devices, they didn’t find any child abuse material on them.

Contreras’s wife told the court that in 2022, her husband worked full-time in the IT industry as a senior assistance administrator for which he had a security clearance and earned $100,000 a year.

However, she said he lost his security clearance when he was charged, which was required for his work. Recently, he had been working as a labourer and handyman, earning about $15,000 a year.

His wife also said their relationship had been distant in 2022, but since then, they had been open with each other and talked about “what led him to this and how remorseful he is that he’s done this”.

“I have no concerns about him doing something like this again. It’s very out of character for him,” she said.

During the cross-examination from Mr Lee, his wife said, “At that time, he was talking to multiple women online, and this person was just one of them”.

“He told me she kept saying she was 14 … but he didn’t really believe that,” she said.

Contreras pleaded guilty to a single count of using a carriage service to procure a person under 16 for sexual activity.

Chief Justice Lucy McCallum continued his bail and will sentence him on 22 April.

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 02 6280 0900, the Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call Triple Zero.