Former top Australian diplomat jailed for underage sexts

A former top Australian diplomat who sent lewd texts to a police officer posing as a 14-year-old boy has been jailed in Melbourne.

John Finnin admitted using a carriage service to procure a child under 16 for sexual activity.

The 63-year-old, who was once a senior Australian government trade official in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, placed an ad on Craigslist for sex with an individual aged 18 but no one older.

Instead a police officer posing as a 14-year-old boy responded.

Despite quickly realising he was communicating with someone under-age the former Australian diplomat kept sending explicit texts.

"The messages you sent may clearly be regarded as grooming and are sexually explicit in nature," Judge George Georgiou said in delivering his sentence today.

The original advertisement offered a reward for whoever was willing to sleep with Finnin.

The former diplomat told the fictional 14-year-old he would teach him the "joys of gay sex" and arranged to meet with him at Seaford railway station.

However he wanted to confirm the boy's identity with a video call and called off the meeting after it didn't happen.

After he was arrested, Finnin told a psychologist he was "lonely and did not think about the consequences".

The offences occurred two years and three months after the Irish-born accused spent seven years in jail for sex crimes against a boy.

He has been unemployed and was vilified in the community after his 2016 release, with one man assaulting him and calling him a pedophile, the court was told.

Finnin was jailed for three years but will be released after serving 14 months and paying $1000.

He must also comply with strict reporting conditions and has been put on the sex offender register for life.