A child killer and sexual predator is back behind bars almost 50 years after he murdered one child and indecently assaulted another within 24 hours in 1978.
Stephen Barry Bush, 65, has been jailed until at least 2027 for his “depraved” and “persistent attraction to underage children and his desire to act upon it”.
Bush was caught trying to get what he thought was a 14-year-old boy to have sex through the gay dating app Grindr. Daily Telegraph reported.
In July 2023, Bush had a week-long, sexually explicit and “graphic” conversation with a boy named “Benny,” who was actually an investigator for the Child Exploitation Unit.
After sending 20 explicit photographs to ‘Benny’ and telling him what sexual acts he wanted to perform, Bush, who said he was 40 years old, arranged to meet the boy and ‘try his first time.’
But instead he was arrested on a street in Wallsend, a western suburb of Newcastle, by detectives behind the online sting operation on July 6, 2023.
Bush did not initiate sexual conversations, Newcastle District Court heard on Friday, but had told ‘Benny’ he was old enough to make his own decisions.
Among those present in court were relatives of Darren Fisher, the 13-year-old boy Bush lured from a Kurri Kurri church hall before murdering him in 1978.
Child killer and sexual predator Stephen Barry Bush (pictured) is back behind bars, 46 years after he murdered one boy and indecently assaulted another within 24 hours in 1978.
Bush (left) was arrested on a street in the western Newcastle suburb of Wallsend in July 2023.
“No sentence would be enough, but I’m glad I was alive to see him back in,” said Darren’s mother, Nola.
Darren was murdered a day after Bush indecently assaulted a 10-year-old boy. He spent 16 years behind bars and was released in the 1990s.
Judge Peter McGrath noted Bush’s “longstanding attraction to underage children” when sentencing him Friday on one count of using a transportation service to procure a child under 16 for sexual activity.
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.
Darren Fisher, 13, was taken from a church and killed by Bush on April 20, 1978.
Bush’s excuse for having sexually explicit conversations with ‘Benny’ despite knowing he was 14 was because he was bored with his disability pension.
Judge McGrath allowed a 25 percent discount for Bush’s early guilty plea.
Bush, who is deaf, was sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison on the pimping charge, with a non-parole period of three and a half years.
With his sentence now complete, he will be eligible for parole on January 5, 2027.
