Crime & Safety
Middlesex County Man Texted With Girl, 13, Charged With Child Porn
At one point, the teen asked if their age gap bothered him and he replied he "came for a 13 y/o body," said federal prosecutors.
PERTH AMBOY, NJ — A Perth Amboy man is accused of engaging in a sexual texting relationship with a 13-year-old girl, where he encouraged the girl to record and send him videos and photos of herself in various sexual acts, U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger announced Wednesday.
The Perth Amboy man is Francisco Villafane, 37. He was arrested Monday and charged with one count of possession, one count of receiving and one count of distributing child pornography.
He first appeared in Newark federal court Tuesday and is currently being held behind bars.
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Federal prosecutors say the two met online in 2020; they did not say on which website the two met. According to the criminal complaint, the girl told him she was 13 at the time. He requested, among other things, that she create sexual videos of herself, and the girl did, said authorities.
The two fell out of contact and then, in November 2023, the girl, then 16, re-engaged contact with Villafane. A search of the girl's phone revealed over 7,000 messages between herself and Villafane.
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In one of the texts, Villafane allegedly told her: “I’m willing to spend life in prison to be with you.” In another, the girl, then 16, asked if their age gap bothered him, and he replied he “came for a 13 y/o body.”
Detectives searched Villafane's home computer and say they found hundreds of the photos and videos the girl had sent him. He was also recorded telling her: “This right here, this is everything you sent me. Good and bad, like, everything. I never deleted anything."
It was the teen girl who reported the relationship to police, and authorities raided Villafane's home in Perth Amboy, seizing his laptop and three cell phones. He is criminally charged with one count of possession, one count of receiving and one count of distributing child pornography.
U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited the Newark Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task force, under the direction of the FBI in Newark, and the Perth Amboy Police Department.
He is being represented by Tatiana Nnaji Esq., Assistant Federal Public Defender
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