WA man pleads guilty to grooming boy for sex
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A Canberra court has heard a Perth man charged with using the internet to groom a teenager for sex told the victim he wanted to spend his life with him.
Keith Shepheard, 50, was arrested in July last year after sending pornographic pictures and sexually explicit text messages to a Canberra teenager via mobile phones and the internet.
He had also been planning to travel to Canberra to meet the boy.
Shepheard has pleaded guilty to the charges. He originally pleaded not guilty but changed his plea in August after failing to appear in court for his trial in July.
The ACT Supreme Court heard an undercover police officer assumed the identity of the teenager sometime after the pair first had contact.
The officer told Shepheard in a text message that he was 14 but the 50-year-old continued to contact him.
The court heard the incident has had a serious impact on the victim and his family.
Shepheard's lawyer argued that it was the teenager who had sent the first explicit video.
Justice Richard Reshague will sentence Shepheard on Monday.
