A Schuylkill County man is facing multiple felony charges after police say he engaged in sexually explicit communications with a decoy from a vigilante group whom he believed was a 14-year-old girl, and later arranged to meet her in person.
Shane Phillips, 25, of Middleport, is charged with felony counts of attempted statutory sexual assault, attempted unlawful contact with a minor, attempted criminal use of a communication facility, and attempted corruption of minors. He is also charged with misdemeanor counts of attempted indecent exposure and attempted indecent assault.
Phillips was apprehended Wednesday afternoon by police and arraigned. He is currently being held in Schuylkill County Prison on $100,000 bail.
Police in Blythe Township say they received information on April 6 from a representative of 814 Pred Hunters, a vigilante group, regarding a man allegedly communicating with a juvenile. A decoy for the group told police she was portraying herself as a 14-year-old girl on Facebook Dating when Phillips initiated contact with her in July.
The decoy told police the conversation moved to text messages in September. During those messages, the decoy informed Phillips she was almost 15 years old. According to the decoy’s statement to police, Phillips replied, “…OK it’s… not my first rodeo in that department.. but I’d have to be careful.. with who looks at ur phone I’d say is all.”
The decoy reported to police that Phillips engaged in sexually oriented conversations over an extended period. The decoy said Phillips sent sexually explicit videos and photographs of himself, requested photographs from the decoy, and sent numerous animated pornographic images.
According to messages provided to police, Phillips later sent a text telling the decoy to lie about her age if his parents asked. When the decoy asked why, Phillips replied, “Your soposed to say that your 19 so I don’t have to explain that yiur underage thing,” police say.
The decoy told police that she and Phillips arranged to meet in person on April 6 at the Middleport fire station. A representative for the vigilante group told police he drove to the agreed-upon location, parked, and observed Phillips cross the street toward him.
The representative said to police that he confronted Phillips and asked why he was there. Phillips initially stated he was there to meet his 19-year-old girlfriend, the representative told police. However, after the representative indicated he knew the actual age the decoy had represented, Phillips admitted he believed the person he was meeting was 14 years old, according to the representative’s statement to police.
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