Officials: 32-Year-Old McKeesport Sex Offender Pretended To Be Teenage Girl While Chatting Online With Teenage Boys
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A McKeesport sex offender admitted to pretending to be a teenage girl, engaging in conversation online with a 12-year-old boy and coercing him to engage in illegal sexual activity.
The Department of Justice announced Thursday Scott Joseph Payne, 32, pleaded guilty to charges of coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity and possession of child pornography.
He also accepted responsibility for two additional counts of coercion and enticement of a minor in illegal sexual activity and three counts of production of images depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor.
The release said while Payne was pretending to be a teenage girl on a chat app in 2017, he persuaded the victim to produce and share stull images and videos of the minor engaging in sex acts.
The release also said Payne engaged in similar communications with a 15-year-old boy in New Jersey and a 16-year-old boy in Louisiana.
Payne had sexually explicit photos and videos of the three minors when law enforcement executed a search warrant on his residence in 2017.
The 32-year-old was on probation for a 2012 conviction involving sexual abuse of children and possession of child pornography. He was required to register as a Megan's Law sex offender.
Payne will be sentenced Feb. 20, 2020.
