The man’s email was shockingly direct: “I’m in to kids, so if you have kids you want to whore out, let me know,” he wrote.
For several weeks, the man sent a flurry of emails from his home in California to another man in Seattle. He wanted to set up a meeting in Los Angeles, so he could have sex with the Seattle man’s teenage daughter.
What the California man didn’t know, was that the man he’d sent all those emails to—along with dozens of pictures of child pornography—was a member of the Seattle Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit, Detective Tye Holland.
In late March, Det. Holland says he posted an ad on a website “known for child porn or having people that victimize kids,” offering up his fictional teenage daughter for sex.
The California man responded, ultimately exchanging around 150 emails with Det. Holland. When it became clear the California man was serious about wanting to set up a meeting to have sex with a child, police began digging into his background. “We found out he’s a registered sex offender,” Det. Holland says, “so that upped the ante.”
Det. Holland contacted the Los Angeles Police Department about the case, and set up a meet with the man in L.A. last week. That’s when LAPD detectives moved in and arrested him for attempted rape of a child and distribution of child pornography.
“The sad thing is, there is no shortage of people that will victimize children if given the chance,” says Det. Holland. “I could do these cases every single day. There’s that much work out there, and there’s that much need.”
As a member of the ICAC unit, Det. Holland says, “There’s a constant feeling that there’s more you can do. I’m busy every single day going after these guys, but you’re scared to let any of them get through the cracks.”
April is National Child Abuse Prevention month. For more information about preventing the mental, physical, or sexual abuse of children, please visit the US Department of Health and Human Services’ website.
You can also find more information about online child exploitation and internet safety on the websites for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Netzsmartz411.