Man Found Guilty for Responding to Ad for Sex With Minor

A Connecticut man, who traveled to Watertown in response to an ad for a sexual relationship with a minor, was convicted on Tuesday for using the Internet to lure a minor to engage in sex.

Paul R. Hinkel, 57, of Chester, CT, was convicted in U.S. District Court in Boston after a three-day trial, according to U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz’s office.

Hinkel traveled to Watertown in March 2014 after seeing an ad on Craigslist.

According to Ortiz’s office:

“In February 2014, undercover federal agents placed an advertisement on Craigslist posing as a mother purporting to seek an adult male interested in a sexual relationship with her daughter. Hinkel responded to the advertisement, and was not deterred when it was revealed that the daughter was only 15 years old. Hinkel proceeded to engage in hundreds of emails with the undercover agents, detailing the sexual activities in which he would engage with the teen.

“On March 19, 2014, Hinkel traveled from his home in Chester, Conn., to Watertown to meet and have sex with the fictional minor daughter. He carried a bag to the door with him, which agents later discovered contained sexual paraphernalia, men’s cologne and a stuffed animal. Hinkel was arrested by federal agents upon his arrival at the site in Watertown.”

Hinkel will be sentenced on May 5. The statute provides a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and no greater than a lifetime in prison, and a lifetime of supervised release.

The case is part of Project Safe Childhood.

“In 2006, the Department of Justice created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims,” said Ortiz’s office.