A 59-year-old Kent man pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to sexual exploitation of a child in connection with his January trip to Cambodia to have sex with underage girls.
Craig Thomas Carr faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison and up to 30 years in prison as well as lifetime supervised release, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of Washington media release.
Carr is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 29 by U.S. District Court Judge Richard A. Jones.
According to the facts admitted in his plea agreement, Carr made contact over the internet with a person in Cambodia who agreed to find girls for him to have sex with during a visit to Cambodia.
Carr paid this person approximately $8,000 for sex with the minor females during a week-long trip to Cambodia. He informed the person arranging the sexual encounters that he wanted the girls to be about 12 years old.
Carr sent his Cambodian contact sexually explicit photographs of minors to show the approximate age of the girls he was seeking. He also asked the source in Cambodia if he could take naked photos of the girls, and, he requested the address of a FedEx store in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, so he could send the photos to his Kent home.
The Kent man traveled to Phnom Penh from Seattle on Jan. 13. He was arrested January 22 by the Cambodian National Police and remained in their custody until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accompanied him May 7 on a flight from Cambodia to the U.S.
Carr admitted that he had sex with three young females over his eight days in Cambodia. His camera contained pictures of three young victims. Two of the victims have been located.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, attorneys will recommend that Carr be placed on lifetime supervised release following his prison term. He will be required to register as a sex offender. He has agreed to pay restitution to the Cambodian victims.
“Today’s guilty plea sends a clear message to child predators who falsely believe they can travel to other countries with the intent of sexually exploiting children and avoid detection by U.S. law enforcement,” said Leigh Winchell, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement homeland security investigations. “ICE remains committed to dedicating its investigative resources to deter this type of illegal activity in the future.”
The case was brought by prosecutors as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit
www.projectsafechildhood.gov
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