A 24-year-old who was in a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old was caught while trying to leave the country on a plane to China.

Name suppression for Kwan Loong Lee was lifted in the Nelson District Court today after he admitted two charges of sexual connection with a young person aged 12 to 16.

Lee and the young person were known to each other and had been in what was described in the summary of facts as a consensual sexual relationship for about two months. The victim was 13 and Lee was 24 at the time of the offending.

They met sometime in 2022 and began communicating, leading to a total of 7093 messages found by police on the victim’s phone, from April 28 this year until May 26.

Police said Lee was “clearly aware” the victim was school-aged because the word “school” was featured in the messaging 55 times.

Late at night on May 1 this year, Lee messaged the victim to say he was threatened with being reported to the police for paedophilia, to which the victim asked why. Lee told her it was “cos I’m dating a minor”.

The incident that resulted in the first charge happened later that night when Lee and the victim met in his vehicle. They began kissing and both agreed to have sexual intercourse, after which the victim went home.

Then, in the early hours of May 25, they met up again and once more had sex in his vehicle. Lee wore a condom but it broke during sex, which made the victim concerned she could become pregnant.

The next day she told her school counsellor, who notified her parents, who then went to the police.

Later that day, the victim sent Lee the message: “My Dad found out and he wants to go to the police so u better stay away from me and our house”.

Lee didn’t respond but on May 31 he was arrested at the Auckland International Airport as he was about to board a plane for China.

After he spoke with a lawyer, he declined to comment to the police further.

Lee was remanded on bail for sentencing on December 12.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.