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Online underage sex sting nets another arrest in PTC

Parents cautioned to monitor kids’ computer activities

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

For the third time in four months, Peachtree City police have arrested an out-of-town man for arranging a tryst in an online chat room with an undercover police officer who he thought was 15 years old, police said.

William C. Elliott, 30, of Gainesville, was arrested Monday after coming to Peachtree City to hook up with the “girl,” said Chief James Murray.

Elliott is charged with enticing a child for indecent purposes and violation of the computer pornography and child exploitation act of 1999, police said.

Elliott was arrested by the same undercover officer he had chatted and exchanged pictures with,ÊMurray said. Two other undercover officers were nearby in case Elliott tried to get away, the chief noted.

Police confiscated Elliott’s work computer, which they believed was used for a majority of the chats, if not all of them, Murray said. The computer, which was taken from a medical billing company in Atlanta, was brought to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for further analysis, Murray said.

The chats had grown more explicit over the length of the investigation, which lasted about a week, Murray said.

“Without a doubt it was real good evidence that he knew she was underage,” Murray said.

Murray said parents need to be vigilant about monitoring children’s computer access. He encouraged parents to make sure they know who their kids are conversing with in chat rooms.

“I tell parents this is like letting your child walk down the street in a crime-ridden area at 2 o’clock in the morning by themselves,” Murray said.

Special software is available that can record every keystroke on a computer, Murray noted.

Although these types of investigations are not typical for most police departments in Georgia, Murray said they are important to undertake.

“We are trying to protect this community from child predators,” Murray said.

Through an arrangement with the Fayette County District Attorney’s Office, the department received special training on protecting children from online predators several years ago.

Murray said he wants the legislature to adopt a new state law that allows police to seize the vehicles of child sex predators after they are arrested in much the way that police can seize the vehicles of drug dealers under certain circumstances.

“These are major felonies,” Murray said.