LOCKPORT, NY – A defendant on trial for child sexual abuse charges left the Niagara County courthouse Wednesday afternoon and has not been seen since.

Paul Turley, 47 of Dunkirk, is accused of molesting two girls in a North Tonawanda case that dates back nearly to the 1990s.

The trial continues to proceed without him. The $50,000 bail posted on his behalf has been revoked.

While there are many questions surrounding this case, the judge has placed a gag order on it.

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“The defense attorney is at an extreme disadvantage,” said Andrew LoTempio, a former Buffalo judge and a current defense attorney. He says child abuse cases are traditionally tough to defend against and that the disappearance has created another problem. He adds that the prosecution’s case will rely heavily on credible witnesses, if it doesn’t have overwhelming evidence.

“It’s going to boil down whether they believe these victims who may not be that young anymore, if they believe them, then it is a slam dunk,” he said.

Thursday in court, jurors heard how relatives of the two accusers rallied behind them in Nov. 2011. Testimony showed that the alleged victims were preparing to come forward about what they say happened to them when they were girls. Loved ones say a family meeting was setup and both women revealed their stories to police.

The case is still being tried under what’s known as Parker Warnings, which is an agreement that says trial will still continue even if the defendant is not there.

Defendants are asked to sign that agreement and Turley did.

Before the gag order, Turley’s attorney told The Buffalo News that Turley was frightened to go to jail and that yesterday he was in a parking lot away from the courthouse.

Testimony is expected to resume Friday morning with or without Turley.

Authorities are looking for him. If convicted, he could get nearly 40 years in prison.

A Hillsborough County man was arrested by state agents after they say he traveled to Orlando in hopes of having sex with a minor, jail records show.

Ryan Mason, 31, was arrested by agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement booked into the Orange County Jail Thursday evening. He faces several charges including traveling to meet parents to negotiate sex with a child and using a computer to solicit the parents of a minor.

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Details regarding Mason’s arrests have not yet been released but jail records show that he will also face resisting arrest and aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer charges. He was denied bail.

An Indiana man was sentenced to more than 34 years in prison on Tuesday for driving to Colorado to have sex with a minor and will serve the rest of his life on supervised probation.

Steven Raines, 35, of Fort Wayne, Ind., was arrested June 30 in Rifle after a three-month investigation and then was indicted in July by a federal grand jury. He pleaded guilty in October to attempted coercion and enticement (to engage in unlawful sexual activity with a minor child), and distribution of child pornography.

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The investigation began when Raines began chatting online with a person he thought was a single mother of two girls under the age of 16. He was actually conversing with an undercover Homeland Security agent in Glenwood Springs, according to a U.S. attorney’s office press release.

“The agent entered a chat room, accessible by anyone, whose topic focused on sex with children,” the release says. “While in the chat room, the undercover agent engaged in a chat with an individual who expressed interest in having sex with [her] and the two minor children.

“The individual went on to say that he had been searching for 20 years for someone like the [agent] who would provide sexual access to her children.”

Raines told the officer that “he discovered he was a ‘pedo’ when he was 15,” the release says. “He also said that he had been previously accused of molesting a child …”

He eventually sent photos that included child pornography and made plans to travel to Colorado in order to rape the children. His main interest was a girl who was supposedly under the age of 6, the release says.

“During the communications between Raines and the agent he made statements about both of his children, and about sexually molesting a minor child to whom he had access, and that he produced images of child pornography of his sexual abuse of that child.”

En route to Colorado, Raines’ van broke down in California, authorities said, and he rented a car to complete the journey to a Rifle home. He was arrested there, and there were 130 images and 84 videos of child pornography on his cell phone, the release says. He had in his home various discs of similar material.

“Sexually exploiting children carries extraordinarily severe penalties — decades in prison, followed by a life term of supervised release,” U.S. Attorney John Walsh said in the release, calling it a top priority for his office.

Raines was immediately remanded into custody to be taken to prison.

The Garfield County Sheriff’s Office assisted in the investigation.

An undercover officer posed as a parent offering their kids for sex. They say the sting nabbed a 31-year-old Brandon man.

Ryan Mason allegedly drove to Orlando after chatting with a Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement agent who offered his daughter to Mason for sex in exchange for money. Mason was arrested Thursday.

FDLE says Mason fought off seven agents who tried to arrest him after he drove to Festival Park near the Executive Airport in Orlando. They were able to take Mason in custody. One agent was hurt.

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In order to catch Mason, they boxed his car in. Agents say Mason then tried to drive through it and continued to fight once they handcuffed him.

Mason is facing six charges, including one count of soliciting a minor to commit sex acts; one felony count of traveling to meet a minor to engage in sexual activity and resisting arrest with violence. Agents think Mason is mentally unstable and very dangerous because of what he was shouting.

“He was yelling at us to ultimately kill him, multiple times. He just wanted to die today for some reason,” explains Jeffrey Duncan with FDLE.

Duncan says they are going to search Mason’s apartment near Tampa as they continue this investigation.

Duncan says this type of stuff happens everyday and the strength that Mason showed when fighting off their agents means he could have really hurt a kid had they been alone.