Australian man pleads guilty to traveling to US to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a 6-year-old boy
LOS ANGELES – An Australian geneticist pleaded guilty Wednesday to traveling to Los Angeles to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a 6-year-old boy, following a probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Michael Quinn, 33, of Melbourne, appeared Wednesday before U.S. District Judge John F. Walter, who scheduled a sentencing hearing for the defendant Oct. 3.
Quinn was arrested on May 21 by special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) when he arrived at a Los Angeles-area hotel to buy a 6-year-old boy for sex.
“Mr. Quinn traveled to the United States to have sex with a young child,” said United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker. “Fortunately, law enforcement was able to ensure that no child was put in harm’s way and that Mr. Quinn would face severe consequences for his conduct.”
According to documents filed in the case, the investigation began in May 2016 after undercover HSI special agents met Quinn on a social networking site that caters to individuals with a sexual interest in children. Quinn admitted during Wednesday’s hearing that he told undercover agents he was traveling to Los Angeles and wanted to “meet up with a dad who shares his young ones.” Specifically, Quinn told investigators, whom he believed were like-minded people, that he was hoping to meet “other pervs” in the U.S.
Quinn ultimately agreed to pay a human trafficker $250 to provide him with a young boy with whom he could engage in illicit sex. Once Quinn arrived in Los Angeles, he was arrested after paying another undercover HSI special agent $260. According to Quinn, “a dominant purpose of his travel was to anally sodomize someone he knew was a 6-year-old boy.”
“As this case makes clear, Homeland Security Investigations is using all of the tools and resources at its disposal to combat the sexual exploitation of children by pedophiles who’re trolling the internet searching for victims,” said Joseph Macias, special agent in charge for HSI Los Angeles. “Pedophiles in the United States, or anywhere in the world, who believe they can escape the detection of law enforcement by traveling to another county to commit heinous crimes against children should be on notice. Cyberspace and international borders will not be barriers to bringing you to justice.”
Pursuant to the plea agreement, if ultimately accepted by the court, Quinn will face a federal prison sentence of between 10 years and 160 months.
The case against Quinn is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joey Blanch of the Violent and Organized Crime Section.
The charges are a product of Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, and HSI’s Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators.
Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.
Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 14,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children. In fiscal year 2015, nearly 2,400 individuals were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative and more than 1,000 victims identified or rescued.
For additional information about wanted suspected child predators, download HSI’s Operation Predator smartphone app or visit the online suspect alerts page.
Updated: