ST. LOUIS – A federal jury convicted a St. Louis County man of multiple child sex crimes on Wednesday afternoon.
David S. Becker, 69, was found guilty of one count of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor, in addition to one count of receiving/distributing child pornography.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, evidence and testimony at the trial, which began Monday, showed that Becker began corresponding with a person on a nudist website.
That person claimed to be a mother of an 11-year-old girl in France. Becker and the person discussed sex acts involving the respondent and the child. Investigators say Becker bought plane tickets for France and an extended-stay visa, planning to travel there in June 2023.
Before then, authorities were already working on a cyber tipline report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about someone uploading child sexual abuse material. That led investigators to conduct a court-approved search of Becker’s home in May 2023.
During the search, investigators found CSAM on Becker’s electronic devices, as well as years of communications about Becker’s plans to sexually abuse the child.
In her opening statement to jurors, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson called Becker’s conduct “deranged and unnatural.”
Becker is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 1. He could face anywhere from 30 years behind bars to life in prison with these convictions.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
