A 32-year-old was jailed for life on Thursday after being caught sending a nine-year-old who lived 700 miles away sexually explicit text messages.
Scott Trader, who lives in Port St Lucie, Florida, has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to multiple child pornography and sexual abuse charges in September, according to the Miami Herald.
His crimes came to light in May when a father in Thomasville, North Carolina, looked at his nine-year-old daughter’s smartphone and found sexual text messages and photographs from Trader on the SayHi application.
The dad contacted police on May 30, who notified Homeland Security. Homeland Security then found messages from Trader to the nine-year-old repeatedly asking for nude pictures.
Scott Trader, who lives in Port St Lucie, Florida, was jailed for life on Thursday after being caught sending a nine-year-old who lived 700 miles away sexually explicit text messages
She first sent him photos of herself fully clothes, and told him her age.
He then messaged her: ‘Aw, you’re very pretty for your age, You look sexy in those pajamas.’
‘The victim eventually sent at least one photo of her vagina and one photo of her pulling her shirt up, exposing her nipples,’ according to court documents.
Trader also sent the victim a video of himself masturbating and ‘a still image which depicted Trader’s face in his bedroom.’
He also sent her an array of other photographs.
Trader’s SayHi profile includes his Kik username, and Homeland Security reached out to the app with an emergency disclosure request. The application gave the government agency Trader’s account information, allowing him to be tracked to his Port St Lucie address.
When an arrest warrant was granted on June 1 – Homeland Security found him in his home with his wife. In the house they found 10 media storage cards, three phones, an external hard drive and a laptop all full of child pornography.
Some of the content involved a two-year-old in Trader’s care who, in one of the videos, was forced to kiss Trader’s penis.
Authorities then quickly got their hands on his driver’s license and criminal history.
In 2012 Trader was arrested in Port St Lucie for promoting a sexual performance by a child, lewd behavior, and possession of child pornography, according to the Herald. The charges were eventually dropped.
Then in December of that same year he was arrested for lewd behavior and molesting a victim under the age of 12; the case is still open.
In August of this year Trader’s wife, who isn’t named, filed for divorce. It was granted on October 18.
On September 29 he pleaded guilty to enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, distribution of material containing visual depictions of sexual exploitation of minors, possession of matter containing visual depictions of sexual exploitation of minors, and production of material containing victual depictions of sexual exploitation of minors.