A Canberra man who offered fellow Tinder users money to find him a young child to have sex with overseas has pleaded guilty to three charges.
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James Stuart Logue, 29, pleaded guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday to preparing for or planning to engage in sexual intercourse with a child outside Australia, possessing child abuse material, and using a carriage service for child abuse material.
Prosecutors withdrew a further four charges.
Logue's lawyer, Paul Edmonds, told the ACT Magistrates Court that he and prosecutors were continuing to negotiate the statement of facts that Logue would be sentenced on, but the Farrer man admitted the three offences.
Documents previously tendered to the court say Logue last year used dating app Tinder to ask users in Thailand to procure a child.
The documents detail excerpts of messages, including: "Hello, I pay you 30,000 baht to find me young girl for sex", "I want girl age 8-16", and "I want sex with young girl ... you find me girl I give you money".
Another message said: "I like small skinny girl ... the younger she is the more money I pay".
The Australian Federal Police began investigating Logue after receiving a report from the United States National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, which had been tipped off by Tinder.
Court documents say that when officers searched Logue's home and devices in October last year found, they found child exploitation material.
According to the documents, Logue told police in an interview that he probably would not have acted on the Tinder messages if a child had been found, and that it was "more of a fantasy".
Logue travelled overseas to the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand in a period of less than seven months before his arrest in October 2019, Department of Home Affairs records show.
Court documents say he told police that when he went to Thailand, he had just "met some friends there to party".
Logue also said he started looking at child exploitation material "years ago", according to a summary of his police interview detailed in court documents.
Acting Chief Magistrate Glenn Theakston on Thursday committed Logue to the ACT Supreme Court for sentencing.
Logue remains on bail, with a date for his sentencing likely to be set next week.
He ran from court on Thursday to avoid waiting media, putting his suit jacket over his head as he raced to a car that had stopped outside to collect him.
