A 40-year-old man pled guilty to attempted enticement of a child after law enforcement posed as a 14-year-old girl on a chat room and the man solicited sex from her.
James Thomas Swinney began participating in an online chat room in late February 2010 when he started contacting who he thought was a 14 year-old-girl from Boone County.
In actuality, the girl was an undercover officer from the task force who had been monitoring the chat room. Swinney continued to contact the undercover officer through April, which initiated the investigation.
“The officer was hanging out on the Internet, in essence, and Swinney contacted her,” Task Force Detective Andy Anderson said. “In the course of several chats, Swinney solicited her to have sex with him. He did this on three separate occasions.”
The Boone County Sheriff’s Cyber Crimes Task Force conducted the investigation.
Swinney pled guilty to three counts of attempted enticement of a child under 15 years old in the Boone County Circuit Court on Tuesday. Swinney had previously pled guilty to similar counts in Christian County, Mo., and currently has charges pending in St. Charles County as well. At the time of the investigation and his arrest Swinney was a resident of Rolla, Mo.
The Cyber Crimes Task Force, which was responsible for Swinney’s arrest, investigates criminal activity that could occur on multiple forums throughout the Internet. Common crimes include child enticement, child pornography, cyber bullying and harassment. The task force consists of investigators from the Boone County Sheriff’s Department, the MU Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
“There are 10 task forces in Missouri who do this kind of work,” said Detective Andy Andersion, coordinator of the task force. “Typically, we investigate any internet crime involving a child. We hang out in all kinds of places where there’s a potential threat, like Facebook, chat rooms and other teen-related sites.”
One in seven teenagers who access the Internet on a regular basis have received unwelcomed sexual solicitation, according to a study conducted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The study is based upon the information collected by 1,500 Internet users between the ages of 10 to 17.
