KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A 27 year old Indiana man who traveled to Independence, Mo. to have sex with two children won’t be making any more trips for the next decade. U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple sentenced Michael A. Stratton to ten years in prison without parole for using the Internet to entice minors for illicit sex. The Judge included time for Stratton using the Internet to distribute child pornography.
Stratton pleaded guilty in January to making the trip to Independence, Mo., to meet a person whom he believed was a mother who was going to make her two children available to him for illegal sexual activity.
Stratton contacted an undercover Independence police officer, whom he believed to be the mother of an 8-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, on July 10, 2008, in an Internet chat room. During that conversation, Stratton sent the undercover officer two videos that contained child pornography and bestiality.
On July 16, 2008, Stratton again contacted the undercover officer, sending photos of child pornography and bestiality. During these chats, Stratton spoke about sexual activities with the undercover officer’s children.
Stratton contacted the undercover officer again on July 17, 2008, and made arrangements to travel from Indiana to meet in Independence. When Stratton arrived at the meeting location that evening, he was arrested by Independence police officers.
Law enforcement officers have identified five children with whom Stratton planned sexual meetings in Texas and North Carolina. Stratton had scheduled an eight-day visit to Texas to meet with a mother he met online to have sex with her children and her sister’s children including a 2-year-old child. Stratton also planned to meet a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina, telling officers he was waiting until she turned 16 so she could drive and “run away from her mother.”
