Canadian sentenced to 6 1/2 years for traveling to Washington to have sex with 14-year-old girl

SEATTLE -- A 31-year-old Canadian man has been sentenced to 6 1/2 years in federal prison for traveling to Washington state with the intent of having sex with a 14-year-old girl.

Tyler Beavis was convicted and sentenced in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

The King County Sheriff's Office said the investigation began in December 2014 when a school official discovered chats between a 14-year-old female student and a man on the girl's school computer.

The man told the girl he was 22, while the girl told detectives she had disclosed she was only 14. During the chats, the sheriff's office said, Beavis told the girl he would fly from Toronto to Seattle and rent a car and a hotel room so they could spend a weekend together.

When Beavis arrived at at Sea-Tac Airport on on Jan. 23, he rented a car and headed toward the girl's school, the sheriff's office said.  Detectives who were following him pulled him over and arrested him before he reached the school.

On Oct. 30, Beavis was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison.