Scranton Man Sentenced for Online Enticement of Minor

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a 46-year-old Scranton resident was sentenced today by Senior U.S. District Court Judge A. Richard Caputo in Scranton to 70 months in prison for attempting to entice a minor to engage in illegal sexual conduct.

According to United States Attorney Peter J. Smith, the defendant, Lewis John Davies, previously admitted to using a computer to attempt to persuade a minor to engage in sexual acts with him during April-June 2008.

Davies was indicted by a federal grand jury in June 2008 as a result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Scranton Police Department.

Judge Caputo also ordered Davies to serve six years on supervised release after serving his prison sentence, pay a $100 special assessment, and forfeit several computer hard drives that were seized by agents during the investigation.

Davies was also ordered to undergo sex offender treatment and to comply with sex offender registration and notification requirements.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa.