A federal grand jury Tuesday indicted a British man on charges alleging that he traveled to the Coachella Valley to engage in illicit sexual conduct with boys who were 10 and 12 years old.
Paul Charles Wilkins, 70, of Littleport in East Cambridgeshire, England, who had dual United States-United Kingdom citizenship, was charged with one count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and one count of attempted sex trafficking of children, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
While the first count of the indictment relates to Wilkins’ travel to the United States to allegedly have sex with two boys, the attempted sex trafficking charge stems from a deal he allegedly brokered with an undercover investigator in which Wilkins allegedly paid $250 to have sex with a 9-year-old boy at a Palm Springs apartment, prosecutors said.
“My office is committed to protecting children from predators — whether the predators are foreign or domestic,” said Eileen M. Decker, the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. “When this defendant’s original plan was thwarted, he made other arrangements to sexually abuse a child. He must be held accountable for these crimes.”
Wilkins was arrested Feb. 11 at the apartment after allegedly paying the money to an undercover operative, officials said.
He was charged in a criminal complaint that remains under seal, and ordered held without bond. A post-indictment arraignment is set for March 4 in Los Angeles federal court.
The charge of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct carries a maximum sentence of 30 years, while the attempted sex trafficking of children count carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.
“This case serves as a strong reminder that the abuse of children in the U.S. by citizens of any country is an unconscionable crime that will not be tolerated,” said Joseph Macias, special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations in Los Angeles.
“Pedophiles who mistakenly believe they can escape detection by traveling to countries other than their own to commit child sex crimes should be on notice that HSI will use all the resources at its disposal to combat this reprehensible behavior and seek justice for the victims,” he said.
— Wire reports