Convicted child killer is back behind bars after being caught sending ‘graphic’ texts and photos to 14-year-old by undercover police

A child killer and sexual predator is back behind bars nearly 50 years after he murdered one boy and sexually assaulted another in a 24-hour period in 1978.

Stephen Barry Bush, 65, was jailed until at least 2027 for his “persistent and depraved attraction to underage boys and his desire to act on it.”

Bush was caught trying to arrange sex with what he thought was a 14-year-old boy via gay dating app Grindr, the Daily Telegraph reported.

In July 2023, Bush engaged in a week-long, “graphic” sexually explicit conversation with a boy named “Benny,” who was actually investigators from the Child Exploitation Unit.

After sending 20 explicit photos to “Benny” and telling him what sex acts he wanted to perform, Bush, who said he was 40, arranged to meet the child to “try his first time.”

But he was instead arrested on a street in Wallsend, a western suburb of Newcastle, by detectives behind the online fraud on July 6, 2023.

Bush did not initiate sexual conversations, Newcastle District Court heard on Friday, but he told “Benny” he was old enough to make his own decisions.

Those in court included relatives of Darren Fisher, the 13-year-old boy whom Bush lured to a Kurri Kurri church hall before murdering him in 1978.

“No sentence would have been enough, but I’m glad I was still there to see him go inside,” said Darren’s mother Nola.

Darren was murdered a day after Bush sexually assaulted a 10-year-old boy. He spent 16 years behind bars and was released in the 1990s.

Judge Peter McGrath highlighted Bush’s “longstanding attraction to underage boys” when he sentenced him on one count of using a transportation service to procure a child under 16 for purposes of sexual activity Friday.

The 65-year-old’s actions with “Benny” showed his “persistent attraction to underage boys and his desire to act on it”, Judge McGrath told the court.

Bush’s excuse for having sexually explicit conversations with “Benny” when he knew he was 14 was that he was bored with his disability pension.

Judge McGrath granted a 25 percent discount for Bush’s early guilty plea.

Bush, who is deaf, was sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison for pimping, with a non-parole period of three and a half years.

With his sentence already served, he will be eligible for parole on January 5, 2027.

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