A 48-year-old man from Newark has been charged with the sexual solicitation of a child after New Castle County police said they found him planning to sexually abuse a 14-year-old girl in his car early Friday morning.
The man was initially pulled over for trying to illegally enter Glasgow Park after it closed, according to police. However, police said the man seemed nervous and gave “vague answers” when officers asked him why he was coming to the park at 12:40 a.m. with a young girl.
Court documents obtained by Delaware Online/The News Journal show that when an officer patted the man down, they found a box of condoms in his pocket. Both the man and the 14-year-old were taken to the police station, according to records.
RELATED:There’s more child sexual abuse material online than ever before. How it’s affecting Delaware
While the New Castle County Police Department said the 48-year-old initially told them that he and the girl were just friends looking for a place to talk, both later admitted that they were planning to have sex, according to court records.
The two had met in an online Chat Avenue chatroom on Thursday night, less than six hours before police encountered them, court records state. The 14-year-old said she initially wanted to meet someone around her mother’s age to “gain further insight and maturity” on how to handle struggles in her relationship with her mom, according to court documents.
Both said they then started to discuss meeting to have sex via Chat Avenue and text messages, court records show. The 48-year-old said they met in what was designated as the “Sex Room” online, where the 14-year-old claimed she was actually 18. The man later admitted he knew that the girl was in high school and saw signs that she was a minor, according to court records.
MORE:How a former school board member used his ‘position of trust’ to access and abuse kids
Whether or not he knew the girl’s actual age does not matter when it comes to defense under state law.
A New Castle County Police Department spokesperson said that this type of situation isn’t something that officers typically see, but “if (they) see suspicious behavior of signs of sexual assault (they) will investigate.”
The 48-year-old man was charged with sexual solicitation of a child under 18 to engage in a prohibited sexual act — a felony — and parking during the hours of darkness without permission in a county parkland. He has been incarcerated at Howard R. Young Correctional Institution.
Send story tips or ideas to Hannah Edelman at hedelman@delawareonline.com. For more reporting, follow them on Twitter at @h_edelman.
