Man Sentenced in Online Child Enticement Case

ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Robert Hobbins, 55, of Rochester, NY, who was convicted of coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity on April 13, 2010, was sentenced yesterday to a prison term of 144 months, to be followed by a term of supervised release of 10 years and a $500 fine by U.S. District Judge David G. Larimer.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany H. Lee, who handled the case, stated that the defendant had been convicted of online enticement when he posed as a 15-year-old female on the Internet and engaged in a four-year online relationship with a 14-year-old girl, during which he induced the girl to create and transmit sexually explicit photographs of herself.

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 Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The conviction was the culmination of an investigation by the Cyber Task Force on the part of special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James H. Robertson, and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, under the direction of Sheriff Patrick O’Flynn.