Convicted:
2010, 
LDS positions: Unknown position, - During crime: Unknown position,
- LDS mission:
unknown
- Alleged:
1 victim,
- Alleged crime scenes:
Online,
Criminal case(s): Convicted, Found guilty, Hung jury, - Alleged failure to report
- Alleged church actions: Ward official accused of failure to report,
updated Oct 16, 2025 - request update | add info
Crime: 
Crime country:
LDS positions: 
Alleged:
Alleged crime scenes:
Criminal case(s): 
Murray Stubbs was a former school teacher, Mormon church member, and policy officer at the Australian Federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations in Canberra, Australia, where he worked for 10 years.
In August 2007, Stubbs allegedly began engaging in online chats and emails with a persona named Roxanne Taylor, whom he believed to be a 14-year-old girl from New Zealand; in reality, this was an undercover operation run by Auckland police.
The alleged conversations, which lasted five months and occurred from locations including Stubbs’s workplace and a Civic internet cafe, became increasingly sexually explicit.
Stubbs requested the girl’s phone number approximately 30 times, asked on at least 22 occasions if she would allow him to perform specific sex acts on her, and instructed her to erase chat histories to avoid detection by her parents, according to police.
Authorities said Stubbs later described the exchanges as “disgusting,” “inappropriate,” and a form of escapist fantasy from his unhappy life, claiming he attempted to end them but was drawn back in.
Stubbs allegedly arranged a meeting. He was arrested on January 21, 2008, at the Jolimont Centre bus terminal in Canberra while waiting for the girl’s arrival, after Australian Federal Police were alerted by New Zealand authorities.
Initially denied bail, Stubbs’s conditions were later adjusted to allow internet access.
Stubbs was suspended from his job.
In the 2009-2010 trial at the ACT Supreme Court (R v Murray Colin Stubbs [2009] ACTSC 63), Stubbs pleaded not guilty to charges of using the internet to procure a person under 16 for sex, and of using an internet service in an offensive manner.
Efforts to exclude evidence as improperly obtained failed, as Chief Justice Terence Higgins upheld the undercover operation.
The jury was hung on the procuring charge, but convicted Stubbs on the lesser offensive use charge.
Stubbs was released on bail pending sentencing the following month.
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Sources
- Former teacher charged with internet grooming,
- Public servant accused over 'sex chat',
- Former teacher to stand trial for grooming girls for sex,
- Jury fails to reach verdict on grooming charge,
- Australian man accused of grooming 'NZ girl',
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1. Former teacher charged with internet grooming
A former teacher who is alleged to have used the internet to groom young girls for sex has been refused bail in a Canberra court.
Australian and New Zealand police had been tracking the online activities of Murray Colin Stubbs, 43, since August last year.
It is alleged the Higgins man sent a number of sexually explicit messages to young girls, including a fictional 14-year-old New Zealand girl who he organised to meet in Canberra.
Police arrested him at the Jolimont Centre in Civic yesterday afternoon while he was waiting to pick up the girl.
Stubbs had been a policy officer at the federal Department of Education for the past 10 years but his employment was suspended today.
The court heard, the father of four sent sexually explicit messages from work and from a Civic internet cafe.
Magistrate John Burns refused him bail, saying it will take some time for police to secure his internet accounts.
He is due back in court on the February 5.
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2. Public servant accused over 'sex chat'
A commonwealth public servant used his work computer to groom a fictitious 14-year-old New Zealand girl for sex, a Canberra court was told.
Murray Collin Stubbs, 43, of Higgins, has been refused bail in the ACT Magistrates' Court on charges of using a carriage service in a way that reasonable people would regard as offensive and providing a false name to police.
The father of four is accused of using the name "moderately interesting guy" on a Yahoo internet site to engage in sexually explicit chat with a 14-year-old girl named "Roxanne" between August 21, 2007 and January 18 this year.
The former school teacher arranged to meet her at a newsagency near the Canberra city bus-interchange on Monday but "Roxanne" was actually New Zealand police officer Detective Steve Waugh.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) arrested Stubbs on Monday at The Barracks LAN Games and Internet Cafe on Alinga Street, Civic, and seized his work computer at the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR).
AFP officer Detective Sergeant Elias Petropoulos said Stubbs used several internet cafes and his DEEWR computer to engage in sexually explicit chat with Roxanne, ask her for naked photos of herself and advise her on masturbation.
"The defendant was worried Roxanne's parents might see the internet chat and advised her to delete her emails," he told the court.
Last week, Stubbs told Roxanne they must stop contacting each other and that he was scared they might get caught, Det Sgt Petropoulos said.
"However the defendant continued to chat and groom Roxanne," he said.
After he was arrested, Stubbs told police he had no intention of participating in sexual activity with Roxanne.
"I am still of the belief that he intended to engage in some sexual activity with her," Det Sgt Petropoulos said.
He said Stubbs had previously engaged in sexual activity with girls aged under 16 he had met online.
Det Sgt Petropoulos said Stubbs had previously sought counselling for his problem.
"By his own admission he has got a bad habit."
Magistrate John Burns, concerned Stubbs could interfere with online evidence, refused bail.
"To my mind there is simply too greater risk of interference with evidence if released at this time," he said.
Mr Burns remanded Stubbs in custody and ordered him to reappear in the same court for a mention on February 5.
Det Sgt Petropoulos said he believed Stubbs was suspended from the department.
A department spokeswoman refused to confirm whether or not Stubbs had been suspended from work and whether he was still being paid, citing privacy laws.
"These charges are not a departmental matter - they are a police matter," she told AAP.
"As it is presently before the court, it would be inappropriate for the department to comment on the matter.
"Public comment at this time could prejudice the ongoing police investigation and the current legal proceedings, which must be allowed to run their course."
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3. Former teacher to stand trial for grooming girls for sex
A former Canberra teacher accused of using online chat rooms to lure young girls for sex will stand trial in the ACT Supreme Court.
Murray Colin Stubbs, 43, from Higgins was arrested in January while waiting at at the Jolimont Centre bus station in Civic for a fictional 14-year-old New Zealand girl
The girl had been invented by police.
Stubbs was sacked from his position as a policy adviser to the Federal Education Department after his arrest.
It is alleged the father of four sent sexually explicit messages to the girl from his work computer and from an internet cafe between August 2007 and January this year.
Today in the ACT Magistrates Court, Magistrate John Burns committed Stubbs to stand trial.
He is on bail and is due to appear in the ACT Supreme Court next week.
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4. Jury fails to reach verdict on grooming charge
A Canberra jury has not been able to reach a verdict on a charge of using the internet to procure sex laid against a former public servant.
It was alledged that in 2008, Murray Colin Stubbs used the internet to groom a teenage girl for sex.
The Supreme Court jury has found Stubbs guilty of the lesser charge of using the internet in an offensive way.
A former federal Education department employee, Stubbs told the jury his sexually explicit online conversations with a teenage girl were an escape from his unhappy life.
Stubbs began chatting with Roxanne Taylor in August 2007.
He believed she was a 14 year old from New Zealand, but in reality she was a fictious online character created by Auckland police.
The 45 year old Higgins man was arrested in January 2008 when he went to meet the girl at the Jolimont Interstate bus terminal, after she said she was holidaying in Australia.
The ACT Supreme Court jury was read sexually explicit conversations between the pair.
Stubbs told the jury he taught her how to perform sexual acts because he thought that would indicate how much she trusted him.
Stubbs said he got no satisfaction from the sexually explicit conversations and felt internal self disgust.
The prosecutor said Stubbs kept asking the girl whether she would let him do things to her.
His counsel argued the 45 year old might have been pathetic and desperate, but when he had the opportunity to live out his dirty fantasies, he walked away.
His counsel told the jury Stubbs had twice tried to stop talking over the internet with the teenager but that the police "reeled him back in" and set up a trap for him.
Stubbs told the court he drew boundaries between the online and real world and knew what he was doing was wrong.
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5. Australian man accused of grooming 'NZ girl'
A former Canberra school teacher has gone on trial for allegedly using the internet to lure a person he thought was a New Zealand teenager for sex.
Murray Colin Stubbs, 43, of Higgins, began chatting online to a 14-year-old girl called Roxanne Taylor in August 2007, not knowing she was actually a fictitious character created by New Zealand police, the ABC reported.
A New Zealand police detective, Steve Waugh, posed as "Roxanne" on a Yahoo chatsite between August 21, 2007 and January 18, 2008 this year, when Stubbs alleged tried to "groom" his character for sex.
Stubbs, a father of four, is accused of using the name "moderately interesting guy" on a Yahoo internet site to engage in sexually explicit chat with Roxanne.
Australian Federal Police officer Detective Sergeant Elias Petropoulos told an earlier court hearing Stubbs used several internet cafes and his work computer to engage in sexually explicit chat with Roxanne and ask her for naked photos of herself.
"The defendant was worried Roxanne's parents might see the internet chat and advised her to delete her emails," he told the court.
An ACT Supreme Court jury was yesterday read sexually explicit conversations between the pair.
Stubbs was arrested in January 2008 at the Jolimont Interstate bus terminal, when he went to meet the "teenager" who had said she was holidaying in Australia.
Police also seized his work computer at the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. Stubbs was sacked from his position as a policy adviser to the Federal Education Department after his arrest.
His lawyer told the jury Stubbs had twice tried to stop talking over the internet with the teenager but that the police "reeled him back in" and set up a trap for him.
The jury was told Stubbs was just fantasising about what he would do if he met the girl, but when that opportunity arose he retracted his original sexual advances.
The trial continues today before Chief Justice Terence Higgins.
- NZPA
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