Canadian man arrested after trying to set up sex with 14-year-old girl, deputies say

KENT, Wash. -- A Canadian man was arrested Friday near Kent after trying to set up a sexual relationship with an underage King County girl.

Sgt. DB Gates of the King County Sheriff’s Office said that the 30-year-old Smithville, Ontario man was arrested at a location near Kent where he had set up to meet the 14-year-old girl. The two had started an online relationship, and Gates said the man continued to pursue the girl even after she revealed her true age.

The man then started to set up a meeting with the girl, where they would spend a weekend at a hotel. Gates said that the plan had gone as far as suggesting to the girl that she tell her parents that she had been kidnapped and drugged as an attempt to cover up their plans. It is believed that the meeting was to be sexual in nature.

But the chats between the man and the girl were discovered by a school district employee, Gates said. The sheriff’s office was then told of the online relationship, and deputies were able to learn from Canadian authorities that the man had purchased a plane ticket to SeaTac Airport and was supposed to fly in on Friday morning. He was tracked onto the flight in Canada, and then was tracked by deputies once he left SeaTac.

The man rented a car and went to a location where he was to meet the girl. But when he got there, he was met by deputies and was arrested. Gates said that the girl never was at the meeting location, and never had in-person contact with the man.

The man was booked into the King County Jail for investigation of Communicating with a Minor for Immoral Purposes and Kidnapping. King County deputies and Canadian authorities are looking into the possibility of the man having more juvenile victims.