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Published in : Newsflashes,

Tags : Newsflashes, Newsflash, Celibate monk caught buying sex

HE had been celibate almost his entire life but when a Buddhist monk finally decided to break his vow by going with a prostitute he managed to pick an undercover police officer.

Hoa Trung Nguyen, 47, from the Phap Bao Temple in Sydney's Cabramatta, even haggled with the would-be prostitute for a better deal on "full sex".

But after being unceremoniously bundled into an unmarked police car, Nguyen claimed he was joking. Following a four-hour hearing at Liverpool Court yesterday, Magistrate Ronald Maiden was not laughing as he convicted the monk for soliciting a prostitute.

"The accused's version of events, in my view, borders on farcical," he said.

"It is quite fantastic."