Former New London Student Admits To Enticing Minors Online: DOJ

NEW LONDON, CT — A Texas man waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, according to U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut John H. Durham.

According to a news release, the alleged incidents occurred between approximately August 2015 and March 2017 while the accused, 24-year-old Travis W. McCoy of Houston, Texas, was attending college and living in New London, Durham said.

"McCoy used internet-based video chatting services, including Kik and Google Hangouts, and internet-based gaming systems, such as Xbox Live, to entice four minor males between the ages of 9 and 14 to engage in sexually explicit conduct over video-chatting services, such as Skype," Durham said in a release. "McCoy either took screen shots of the minors engaged in sexual activity, or requested and received from the minors digital images and videos in which the minors are depicted engaging in sexual activity. McCoy also sent sexually explicit images and videos of himself to the minor victims."

Durham said the investigation revealed the accused initially met one of the minor victims at a summer camp in Texas, where he had worked as a camp counselor.

"The investigation also revealed that McCoy maintained three Dropbox accounts and gave the password to one of the accounts to a person living in Los Angeles as a way to share and receive child pornography," Durham said. "The Dropbox accounts contained 120 images and 158 videos of child pornography."

According to Durham, there is no evidence the accused distributed any of the images or videos he received from the four minor victims he enticed.

The accused is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 24, at which time he faces a mandatory minimum prison term of 10 years and a maximum term of imprisonment of life, Durham said. The accused was arrested on a federal criminal complaint on June 28, 2017, and is detained pending sentencing.

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