Detectives posed online as children and as parents selling sexual encounters with their children.
- PUBLIC SAFETY
- Toni Whitt
-
Monday, September 17, 2012
A registered sex offender and a St. Petersburg firefighter are among 43 suspects arrested in a sting by the Manatee County Sheriff's Office targeting adults trolling the Internet for sex with minors. The Manatee County Sheriff's Office identiified the 43 suspects arrested in the past week, and their addresses include Manatee, Pinellas, Sarasota, Lake, Hillsborough, Charlotte and Collier counties. A total of nine men from Sarasota County were arrested in the sting. Authorities say the men were going online to solicit sex with children and set up similar to Dateline's To Catch A Predator. Detectives posing as parents and as children went online to several computer chat rooms that are set up for people to anonymously talk about sex and to set…
A lieutenant commander of the U.S. Coast Guard JAG Miami unit was also arrested with 31 men in an online child predator sting operated by the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office.
The owner of Gulf Gate’s King George Pub is facing child predator charges in a large sting operated by the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. Nick Barthram, 34, of 342 Mandez Drive, was charged with the use of computer to seduce, solicit or entice a child to commit sex acts and travel to seduce, solicit or entice a child to commit sex acts, said Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight at a Monday afternoon press conference that announced the results of a joint agency online child predator sting. This is the first-ever online child predator sting by the sheriff’s office, Knight said, and lasted six days. “I think this operation illustrates how vulnerable our kids are,” Knight said. “And to parents, guardians of children — we live in a different …
GINO THOMAS
7:56 pm on Monday, September 17, 2012
thank you for this sting. I cant tell you how much we thank you. it,s to bad we have to do this more ›