Texas Man Admits to Enticing Minors to Engage in Sexual Activity Over the Internet

John H. Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Peter C. Fitzhugh, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Boston, announced that TRAVIS W. MCCOY, 24, of Houston, Texas, waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea in Hartford to one count of enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity.

According to court documents and statements made in court, between approximately August 2015 and March 2017, while he was attending college and living in New London, McCOY used internet-based video chatting services, including Kik and Google Hangouts, and internet-based gaming systems, such as Xbox Live, to entice four minor males between the ages of 9 and 14 to engage in sexually explicit conduct over video-chatting services, such as Skype.  McCOY either took screen shots of the minors engaged in sexual activity, or requested and received from the minors digital images and videos in which the minors are depicted engaging in sexual activity.  McCOY also sent sexually explicit images and videos of himself to the minor victims.

The investigation revealed that McCOY initially met one of the minor victims at a summer camp in Texas where McCOY had worked as a camp counselor.

The investigation also revealed that McCOY maintained three Dropbox accounts and gave the password to one of the accounts to a person living in Los Angeles as a way to share and receive child pornography.  The Dropbox accounts contained 120 images and 158 videos of child pornography.  There is no evidence that McCOY distributed any of the images or videos he received from the four minor victims he enticed.

Judge Shea scheduled sentencing for September 24, 2018, at which time McCOY faces a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years and a maximum term of imprisonment of life.

McCOY was arrested on a federal criminal complaint on June 28, 2017.  He is detained pending sentencing.

This matter has been investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the New London Police Department and the Houston Police Department.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy V. Gifford.