Sex Offender Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison for Child Enticement Offense

Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that BRYAN WHITE, 40, of New London, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford to 198 months of imprisonment, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for attempting to entice a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity.

According to court documents and statements made in court, in June and July 2016, WHITE used a cellular phone and Chat Bazaar, a video chatting service, to communicate with a 13-year-old female in New Jersey. In text messages, the minor victim repeatedly told WHITE her age. WHITE responded by saying that “age is just a number to deny u things” and that he is a “child lover.” The text exchanges with the victim were sexually explicit, and WHITE requested that the victim travel from New Jersey to Connecticut to engage in sexual activity with him.

On June 16, 2016, the victim’s father discovered the texts with WHITE on the victim’s phone and reported it to local police. A law enforcement officer then assumed the minor’s identity to continue to correspond with WHITE. Between June 29 and July 5, 2016, WHITE repeatedly asked the undercover officer, posing as the victim, to come to Connecticut and described the sexual activity he wanted to engage in with the victim. The undercover officer agreed to take a bus from New Jersey to Connecticut. WHITE explained that he would be at the bus terminal wearing a yellow “MICHIGAN” shirt and that he would bring condoms and pina colada wine coolers to the bus station.

On July 5, 2016, WHITE was arrested at the New London bus station at the designated time wearing the clothes that he said he would be wearing. At the time of his arrest, WHITE was in possession of a condom and two bottles of alcoholic beverages.

In 2004, WHITE was convicted in state court of risk of injury based on his conduct in approaching two children who were walking to their aunt’s house in Waterbury and asking them if he could see one of them naked. A few months later, during his participation in a sex offender evaluation, WHITE disclosed that he sexually assaulted a nine-year-old boy on multiple occasions over a four-month period. He was convicted of sexual assault in the first degree and received a sentence of 12 years of incarceration. WHITE was released from prison in November 2015 and, from December 10, 2015 until April 4, 2016, he resided at an inpatient sex offender treatment facility. He was then transferred to a residential program and, while under court supervision, began communicating with the minor victim.

WHITE has been detained since his arrest on July 5, 2016. On February 22, 2017, he pleaded guilty to one count of attempted enticement of a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity.

This matter was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Burlington County (N.J.) Prosecutor’s Office, the Florence (N.J.) Township Police Department, the New London Police Department and the Connecticut State Police. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy V. Gifford.