A Middletown Township man was convicted by a federal jury last week.
During a trial, Kyle Paine, 27, of Middletown Township’s Langhorne section, was convicted of multiple child exploitation offenses, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
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Paine was charged by indictment with attempted enticement of a minor to engage in sexual conduct, attempted transfer of obscene material to a minor, and possession of child pornography in January 2020.
A joint investigation by the FBI and Bensalem Township police through the Project Safe Childhood program found that Paine had been in contact with an undercover FBI special agent in March 2019 that he believed was an 11-year-old child who would meet with him for sex, authorities said.
“The defendant also requested that the girl self-produce child pornography and send it to him, and sent her a sexually explicit image in an attempt to entice her to do so,” prosecutors said in a statement.
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“Paine’s child victimization is over,” Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said in a statement. “Child sexual exploitation is so pervasive and harmful, made even more so by the easy availability of digital media and communications. Further, the ability to hide this type of activity online can make these cases even more difficult to investigate. As always, we stand ready with our federal partners to identify and prosecute these criminals and protect children everywhere from predators like Paine.”
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