A resident of Spring, Texas has entered a plea of guilty to enticement of a child and possession of child pornography, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Thursday.
Steve Correa-Franco, 33 contacted a nine-year-old girl in Rochester, Minn. on kidzworld.com and persuaded her to email a nude photograph of herself to him, the bureau said.
http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html
“During the April 6 chats, the girl told Correa-Franco she was nine years old,” officials said. “He said he was 16 years old and repeatedly discussed having sex with the young girl. He also sent (her) several photos of himself that contained images of his face.
“Correa-Franco asked the girl to take a nude photograph of herself, which she did using her Nintendo DS handheld game system. She took the photograph with the gaming system, uploaded it to her computer, and then e-mailed it to the address Correa-Franco had provided.”
The girl’s father noticed she had had contact with a male. He accessed her Yahoo email account and saw logs of conservations between the two.
The Richmond Police Department began investigating the case
“Law enforcement officers were able to trace the e-mail account to Correa-Franco’s residence in Spring,” the bureau said. “On May 18, a federal search warrant was executed, at which time agents seized Correa’s laptop computer. Agents were able to confirm the images e-mailed to the 9-year-old were, in fact, images of Correa-Franco.
“A forensic analysis of the laptop computer resulted in the discovery of 210 digital videos of child pornography, including the lewd and lascivious exhibition of the genitals of minor children and actual sexual intercourse involving a nude minor female and adult male. The nude image of the nine-year-old victim taken by her at Correa-Franco’s urging was also discovered.”
Correa-Franco faces a sentence of at least 10 years and up to life imprisonment on the enticement conviction, as well as another 10 years for possessing child pornography. Both convictions also carry a possible $250,00 fine. He also faces a maximum of life on supervised release, during which the court can impose a number of special conditions designed to protect children and prohibit the use of the Internet.
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake, who accepted the plea, has set sentencing for March 8, 2013. Correa-Franco will remain in custody pending that hearing.
