Rochester Man Pleads Guilty to Online Enticement of a Minor

ROCHESTER, NY—United States Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced that Robert Hobbins, 53, of Rochester, New York, pleaded guilty today to a one count felony charge of enticement of a minor online. Online enticement of a minor carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life and a fine of $250,000.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany H. Lee stated that the defendant admitted that beginning in 2004, while he was residing in Rochester, NY, he began a relationship online with a young female, 14 years of age, who was residing in California. Pretending to be another young female who was 16 years of age, Hobbins began an intimate and sexually explicit online relationship with the Californian victim. He persuaded, induced and enticed the Californian minor to send via the Internet, sexually explicit pictures of herself, knowing that she was between the age of 14-15 years. These images were found on his computer when law enforcement conducted a search of his residence in June 2009.

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 arrest was the culmination of an investigation on the part of the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, under the direction of Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn, the Monroe County District Attorney's Office under the direction of Mike Green and and special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of James H. Robertson.

A sentencing date is to be scheduled before the Hon. David G. Larimer, United States District Court Judge.