By Miklos Bolza in Sydney

An award-winning author who had access to children through school book events has been placed behind bars after grooming three teen victims online.

Oliver Phommavanh, 42, was once respected for children’s fiction works such as Thai-riffic!, What About Thao? and The Other Christy.

But the Thai-Australian writer was escorted to jail by NSW sheriffs on Monday after pleading guilty to multiple child sexual offences.

“He has had a significant fall from grace,” his barrister Kieran Ginges told a sentence hearing at Sydney’s Parramatta District Court.

“He will never be a public figure again, he will always be a public pariah.”

Phommavanh groomed three young girls between 2020 and 2024, using compliments as persuasion towards sexual activity.

He was arrested at a home in the Sydney suburb of West Guildford shortly after trying to groom an undercover police officer posing as a teen online.

Before being taken away by sheriffs, the writer was denied a last chance to hug his wife, who was in court on Monday along with his sister and members from his church.

Mr Ginges said the chats, including highly sexualised stories with the three victims, occurred before and after they turned 16.

“I’m going to keep saying it but you are way more mature than your age,” he told one girl.

One victim sent him 20 photographs of herself.

The 43-year-old also engaged in a sexual act with the undercover police officer watching, the court was told.

While Phommavanh had previously been a teacher, the grooming occurred after he had switched professions to take up writing.

His barrister argued the offending conduct was not very serious, saying his client had not been found with child abuse material downloaded from illegal websites.

While the three teen victims showed a degree of self-preservation, including by talking about consent, the conduct of the undercover police officer was more permissive, Mr Ginges said.

This was intended to see how far Phommavanh would go.

But the writer never intended to meet up with any of the victims for sexual activity, having created a boundary in his mind that the actions were fine if he did not meet them, Mr Ginges said.

The writer now acknowledged the serious impact and trauma his conduct had on the three girls, the court was told.

Mr Ginges urged Judge Peter Krisenthal to impose a longer non-parole period, saying the community would want the 43-year-old to continue psychological treatment.

The crown prosecutor pushed for a harsher sentence, saying there was no evidence Phommavanh had only groomed the girls for sexualised online chats.

He persisted with his offending, including taking advantage of one victim who contacted him after reading one of his books, the court heard.

He manipulated the three girls in the online chats, using discussions about his writing to introduce sexualised themes, the prosecutor said.

In August, Phommavanh pleaded guilty to four counts of grooming, one count of attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child and one count of transmitting child abuse material.

He will be sentenced on February 13.

The 43-year-old had been riding high in children’s literary circles before his arrest, being featured on writer’s week panels, podcasts and several award shortlists.

He had been included in a literary anthology of “Australia’s bestselling authors, illustrators and funny people”.

His 2010 novel Thai-Riffic! was short-listed for the Young Australian Best Book Awards and was one of two Phommavanh titles inducted into the hall of fame for the NSW-based children’s choice Koala awards in 2015.

The Other Christy and What About Thao? have both been long-listed for the prestigious Children’s Book Council of Australia awards.