The court heard the 46-year-old trucky had posted an advertisement online titled ‘male, looking for mother and very young daughter’.
The paedophile was caught when he tried to bargain with a mother to pay her to have sex with her young daughter. The mother turned out to be an undercover police officer during an undercover operation targeting sex offenders.
The Adelaide District Court, in a judgement published online, heard that Henke posted an advertisement on the website ChaosAds in October 2020.
“The advertisement was titled ‘male looking for mother and very young daughter’,” Judge Adam Kimber said during sentencing.
The Adelaide District Court heard Henke posted an advertisement on a website called ChaosAds on October 2, 2020.
“The undercover officer pretended to be a 37-year-old mother of two young girls, aged five and eight,” Kimber said.
“Among other things, you asked about the child’s sexual experience, requested a photograph and asked whether the child had been shown the photograph you had sent of your penis,” Kimber said.
The court heard Henke booked a hotel room where he could have sex with the child, arriving there on October 23 with condoms and lubricant.
“The condoms were flavoured, and, in the flavour, you had been told the child liked,” Kimber said.
His offending was stopped in its tracks when police broke into the hotel room.
After the accusations were read to him, he claimed that he was intending to report the police officer he believed to be the little girl’s mother.
“You lied to the police and said you had gone along with the communications with the intention of reporting to the police the person with whom you are communicating,” Kimber said.
The court heard Henke, who previously worked as a truck driver, posted the advertisement on the same day his wife requested a divorce.
The judge commented that the offending was “heinous,” and he was at a “very real” risk of reoffending.
Henke was sentenced to a maximum of five years and eight months jail, backdated to October 23, 2020.
He was given a non-parole period of three years and six months.
Praise be to God for the police who caught this monster. I have witnessed occasions where I have seen young mums with young daughters in situations where I had a gut feeling that these types of transactions were going on. I just had to convince myself that such a thing couldn’t possibly be happening. Could it? God help us all