MEMPHIS, TN—Gary Robert Davis, 49, of Ft. Myers, Florida, was sentenced to 17 ½ years, or 210 months, in federal prison yesterday following his guilty plea to one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children, announced Edward L. Stanton III, United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee.

In February of this year, Davis contacted a Memphis area woman over the Internet and asked her to get a teenager to masturbate on webcam so Davis could watch it live in Florida on his smartphone. Davis even wired money to the woman to pay for the requested act. The woman reported Davis to the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, which opened an investigation. Agents recovered video surveillance that showed Davis at a Western Union, where the money transfer initiated, and chat conversations regarding the minor. Davis is already a registered sex offender, with three 1998 convictions for attempted sexual battery in Florida.

In addition to the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Sheryl H. Lipman ordered Davis to serve five years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal prison system.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Ireland represented the government.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative of 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, PSC 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 PSC, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/resources.html and click on the tab “resources.”