Daniel William Peckham decided to create his own Gothic appreciation club on the internet, based on Rookwood cemetery.
The membership fee he demanded from under-age teenage girls seeking to join was sexual intercourse or for them to email naked photographs of themselves to him, federal police alleged in Central Local Court yesterday.
When he created "Rookwood Gothic Society" in a MySpace web page Peckham declared in a foreword: "I don't like society. So I created my own, with gothic sluts to service me. Male 22 years old Sydney, NSW Australia."
But it was a series of online chats and an alleged kissing trip to Rookwood Cemetery with a 13-year-old girl who answered the call that bought him before a magistrate, Ian Barnett, yesterday.
Peckham, 22, of Ashcroft, near Liverpool, was charged with using a carriage service between last Monday and Saturday to groom a child under the age of 16 for sex.
The charges, including one of using a carriage service to transmit child pornography, were laid by officers from the federal police online child sex exploitation team. The team received an email from the 13-year-old girl last week alerting them to Peckham's activities, police alleged in a statement presented to the court.
Police alleged the Rookwood Gothic Society website was a creation of Peckham's for "soliciting minors for sex". It was alleged an initial examination by police of his computer, seized in a raid on his home on Friday, found 30 images of naked girls, of which several had been identified as being under the age of 13.
Police said the girl who alerted them to Peckham's activities had communicated with him through his MySpace forum. They alleged that Peckham said: "if the victim wishes to join his society she will have to have sex with him or send naked photographs of herself to him in order for him to trust her".
"It's the only way to become a member," Peckham is alleged to have told her.
Police said Peckham was told by the girl that she was 13 and he had told her he was 22.
Despite an offer to post $1500 surety by Peckham's father, Mr Barnett refused a bail application for the protection of the community. Peckham was remanded in custody to reappear before Central Local Court on August 22.
