Man Sentenced For Coercing Alexandria Teen Through App

ALEXANDRIA, VA—A Pensacola, Fla. man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for coercing an Alexandria girl to meet him for sex and send him explicit images.

Federal prosecutors say Anthony C.A. Martin, 27, began communicating with the 15-year-old girl over Kik, an instant messaging app, in 2016. He reportedly claimed to have been 19 and discussed meeting with her in Virginia before taking her to where he lived in Ohio. In the spring of 2017, they met at a hotel in Alexandria and had sex before driving to Ohio.

Martin also used Kik to ask for explicit photos and videos of her. After the girl was back in Alexandria, he traveled to Alexandria to have sex in a different hotel in June 2017. Prosecutors say he recorded the encounter with his cell phone without her permission.

The case was part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to fight child sexual exploitation and abuse.

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