A BORDER high school teacher yesterday pleaded guilty to charges involving inappropriate conversations with someone he believed was a teenage girl and the possession of child abuse material.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Paul Edward Mills, 46, of Thurgoona, will appear in the District Court in Albury in April for sentencing on the indictable offences.
He pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to procure a person under 16, using a carriage service to transmit indecent communication to someone under 16 and having child abuse material.
Six other charges against him were withdrawn.
The court has previously heard Australian authorities began investigating him in May last year soon after a tip-off from US detectives about an “inappropriate conversation” with a girl, 15, in Illinois.
Officers from the child exploitation unit posed as a sexually naive girl, 14, and began online communications with Mills.
Mills, a music teacher, used the social network name “Mick Horny” and his profile picture was a penis.
He asked sexually inappropriate and explicit questions online on June 28.
Mills made contact twice online at 5.01pm and 6.35pm before a phone call was made at 7.14pm.
The call lasted 14 minutes with Mills giving the girl explicit sexual instructions.
There were further online conversations on July 2 and July 3 with sexually explicit and highly inappropriate comments.
Officers from the child exploitation internet unit went to Mills’ home at 6.50am on July 9 with a search warrant and arrested him.
When interviewed, Mills made full admissions about what he had done but it was claimed by him he thought 14 was a legal age.
An analysis of his computer and other items seized showed a large number of child-abuse images.
Mills has been on bail since appearing in court last year and magistrate Tony Murray yesterday continued his bail.
Mr Murray has ordered the preparation of a pre-sentence report on Mills for his sentencing hearing.