A TANILBA Bay man who tried to procure a nine-year-old girl online for sexual activity - but was actually chatting with an undercover police officer - has been jailed for a maximum of four years and nine months.
Newcastle District Court heard on Monday afternoon Jason Delaney Bishop, 48, began talking in a chat room with the woman he believed was the mother of a young girl only three months after he had finished serving a full four-year prison term for child grooming.
According to a statement of agreed facts, Bishop conversed with the undercover cop over three weeks in January and February 2023.
During that time, Judge Roy Ellis said, Bishop was "reasonably persistent" and attempted to groom the child, through the so-called mother, for sexual activity.
The court heard Bishop was also caught with 32 child abuse material images on his phone when police arrested him in February 2023.
Bishop pleaded guilty to one count each of using a carriage service to groom a person to make it easier to procure a child under 16 for sexual activity, possessing child abuse material, and failing to comply with child offenders register obligations.
Judge Ellis sentenced him to a total of four years and nine months in jail, including a 25 per cent discount for his early guilty pleas.
The sentences were also backdated to account for time he has spent behind bars since he was charged.
Bishop will be first eligible for parole in February, 2026.
