An Australian convicted sex offender who was jailed for 13 months in Queensland for grooming a 14-year-old girl has been found dead in a hotel room in Bali.
Staff forced entry to the room in the Cove Griya Elite hotel in East Denpasar at about 3pm on Wednesday afternoon and discovered Kenneth Leslie Sternes, 77, lying on the floor.
East Denpasar Police Chief I Ketut Tomiyasa said Sternes failed to check out and staff then called a locksmith after going to his room several times but getting no response, local media reported.
“Initial findings showed no indication of violence. The victim is suspected to have died due to illness,” Tomiyasa said.
Police estimate Sternes had been dead for about six hours before he was found, based on a preliminary investigation, but his body was taken to hospital for further examination.
Police found personal belonging, including two mobile phones, a wallet, passport, ID cards, medication and insulin in the room, and said Sternes showed signs of recent medical injections on his wrist and had a catheter attached to his body.
Sternes was jailed in 2011 after a Brisbane District Court jury found him guilty of one count of grooming a child under 16 and eight counts of exposing a child under 16 to indecent material.
The pharmacist was arrested after arranging to meet a person he believed was an 14-year-old girl named Cassie, who he had sent explicit photos and videos of himself performing sex acts, but who was actually an undercover police officer.
“You set out to groom the girl,” Judge Nick Samios said in sentencing.
“You did make an attempt to meet her … (and your offending was committed) with a high level of persistence.”
Header image: Kenneth Leslie Sternes (supplied).
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