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September 14, 2005

Testimony of AG Tom Corbett
House Judiciary Committee Informational Meeting on Internet Sexual Predators

Good morning Chairman O'Brien, and members of the House Judiciary Committee.  Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.  With me today is Chief Deputy Attorney General Frank Fina of our Criminal Prosecutions Section, which oversees our Child Predator Unit. 

The Problem

I am here today to talk about a threat that is growing within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as well as every other state in our nation. 

To allow you to grasp the scope of the problem more fully, I will be presenting a PowerPoint program that I hope you will find educational. 

Child sexual exploitation is a pervasive problem.  It is a threat that endangers every single community in Pennsylvania; no city, no neighborhood, and no family is immune or exempt from this terrible danger.  The threat I speak of is the crime of sexual exploitation of our children.  It is a horrific, brutal crime that steals our children's innocence.  It is notable that:

" One in five children ages 10 to 17 have received unwanted sexual solicitations online, according to the Youth Internet Safety Survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice.

" The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that one in five girls and one in ten boys are sexually exploited before they reach adulthood, yet less than 35 percent of those child sexual assaults are reported to authorities.  

" The Internet Filter Review, an online publication that is dedicated to protecting children from pornography on the Internet, has estimated that there are one-hundred thousand (100,000) web sites offering illegal child pornography. 

" The Internet Filter Review also reports that the average age of exposure to Internet pornography is 11-years-old.

Public safety is the number one responsibility of government.  Before roads are paved, before the mail is delivered, government must provide for the safety of its citizens - especially those who cannot protect themselves, such as our children. 

It is that responsibility which brings us all here today. 

Combating Child Predators

Child sexual predators are not a new threat; quite the contrary, they are a very old one.  

Early in my career as a prosecutor, as an Assistant District Attorney, I prosecuted men who had sexually exploited several young girls.  The ringleader sought out troubled children in his neighborhood, local children who would be most vulnerable to his cunning and charm.  He then supplied them with drugs and alcohol to make them even more vulnerable.  The photographic record he kept of his crimes was key evidence I used in winning his conviction. 

Predators who seek to sexually exploit our children are a threat that has faced law enforcement for decades, at the very least.  But developments over the last
ten years have created significant new challenges. 

When I was Pennsylvania's Attorney General a decade ago, I saw that technology was improving our ability to communicate with one another; we were seeing the early development of the "information superhighway."  But while improvements in technology came into common use, and computers were an increasingly affordable tool, some individuals in Pennsylvania and across the nation saw an opportunity to manipulate new technologies for criminal purposes. 

those who sexually prey upon our children saw an opportunity to coordinate their exploitation of our youth and their trafficking of illegal child pornography through an instantaneous, anonymous format. 

Predators, such as the one I previously mentioned who preyed upon local girls, no longer have to seek out victims in their own neighborhoods.  As the Internet has seen explosive growth, child predators are using their computers to seek out victims on a broader scale, and there is an explosion of child pornography on the Internet.  . 

Ten years ago I created the Child Sexual Exploitation Unit to coordinate anti-child pornography efforts with the United States Postal Inspectors, and to begin taking a look at how to combat crimes against children on the Internet. 

That Unit, which has been staffed by only three people, has been very effective under Attorneys General Mike Fisher and Jerry Pappert.  Since March 2001, it has had a total of 80 arrests and has a 100% conviction rate to date.  Since I've taken office, in seven months alone, my Child Predator Unit has arrested 21 predators. 

With your help, I've received funding to reformat the Child Sexual Exploitation Unit into a Child Predator Unit.  The Child Predator Unit is a group of agents and prosecutors that conducts online sex sting operations. 

Child Predator Unit Online Stings

When the Child Predator unit conducts a sting, agents will go online posing either as young children or as the parents of young children.  Agents will start by entering a chatroom: an Internet forum where dozens of people can type messages to one another.  They will log onto common Internet service providers that are used frequently by families across Pennsylvania: Yahoo; America Online or "AOL;" Comcast. 

What you are about to see are clips from some of these actual online conversations between sexual predators and what they believe to be potential victims. 

Typically, the agents do not have to seek out the predators.  Sexual predators will target individuals they believe may be susceptible children, and our agents posing as pre-teen girls or boys are often sexually solicited within minutes of entering the chatroom. 

From these chatrooms, predators will often move the conversation into "instant messages."  Instant messages are a separate window on the computer screen where the predator can converse one on one with a potential victim.  The messages are easily hidden on a computer screen, and they allow the "messagers" to do other things on the computer at the same time.  A child could easily be doing homework on the computer at the very same time they are having a conversation with a sexual predator. 

These online predators quickly turn the conversation to a graphic discussion of sex. 

And soon after, they will arrange a meeting with what they believe to be a pre-teen or young teen boy or girl.  When they arrive for the meeting, they are taken into custody by Child Predator Unit agents. 

John B. Martin

Allow me to introduce you to John B. Martin from Pittsburgh.  Martin was 48-years-old sexual predator with a prior conviction for child pornography. 

He began communicating with our agents in 2001.  This is a handwritten letter he sent in response to a magazine ad, placed by our agents, which advertised a "daddy seeking boys."  Martin believed he was writing to a father who would allow him to rape his 7-year-old son. 

In this email to our agents, he describes how he would like to victimize the 7-year-old boy.  He talks more about his plans to sexually assault the child, and even says that he'd be willing to take a day off from work to do it.  In another email, he mentions the fact that he has previously been convicted for crimes involving child pornography.  And then he finalizes his plans to meet the child and reiterates his desire to victimize him.   

When John Martin showed up for his meeting with what he believed to be a man and his 7-year-old son, he was taken into custody.  He was charged with criminal solicitation of rape, criminal solicitation of statutory sexual assault, criminal solicitation of involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, criminal solicitation of aggravated indecent assault, criminal solicitation of indecent assault, criminal solicitation of indecent exposure, criminal solicitation of corruption of minors and criminal use of a communication facility. 

When Martin was arrested, he was without any type of "protection" against sexually transmitted diseases.  And as you can see from his signed statement, he knew that he was HIV positive.  Martin was sentenced to two-to-five years in state prison and 19 years of probation. 

Charging and Legislation

Each of the predators that you have seen today has been criminally charged.  Some cases are prosecuted by my office, but some prosecutions must be arranged through the District Attorney's offices. 

We must refer these cases because my office does not have jurisdiction with respect to certain criminal offenses. We have worked closely with the District Attorneys on these matters, and we will continue to do so.
 
Using the Internet to prey on children is a crime that knows no boundaries.  Offenders travel beyond the borders of their town and beyond the borders of the Commonwealth.  We, as those responsible for public safety, must recognize the scope of this threat and use our resources most effectively to locate and apprehend these offenders.  
Within the next few weeks, my legislative team will be contacting you to provide you with proposals to ensure that my office has the appropriate tools to effectively investigate and prosecute these cases.  Our legislative agenda will focus on clarifying the language in the current law.  We will also seek jurisdiction, where appropriate, and after consultation with the District Attorneys.

The Child Predator Unit will continue its operations on an expanded basis, thanks to the new resources you have allotted for the Unit during the most recent budget process.  Agents will continue to root out child predators who use the Internet as a weapon against our children, and I intend to maintain our 100% conviction rate. 

I look forward to continuing to work with you to protect Pennsylvania's children from sexual predators, and I would be happy to answer any questions at this time. 

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