April 23, 2008
Media Contact: Sandi Copes
Phone: (850) 245-0150
New Jersey Man Gets 3 Years For Attempting To Meet "13-Year Old" For Sexual Encounter
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that a New Jersey man has been sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to using the internet to seduce a child. Mohamed M. Fathy, of Avenel, New Jersey, was arrested in March 2007 when he traveled to meet someone he thought was a 13-year old girl from Polk County. He was prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.
Fathy, 28, was in Florida on business and staying in Altamonte Springs when he began chatting with the 13-year old "girl" online, unaware that he was sexually soliciting an undercover investigator with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Using the screen name "VeryValentinoNJ," his conversation quickly turned sexually graphic and he eventually agreed to travel to the decoy house for a sexual encounter with the child. He was arrested by law enforcement officers with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
Facing up to 15 years in prison, Fathy pleaded guilty to two counts of using a computer to seduce a child and one count of attempting to use a computer for child exploitation. Judge Donald Jacobsen, Circuit Judge for the Tenth Judicial Circuit, sentenced Fathy to three years and 10 months in prison. He must also register with the state as a sex offender upon his release.