Bay Minette Man Sentenced to 17½ Years in Prison for Attempting to Entice a Child

MOBILE, AL – Timothy Allen Arthur, age 66, was sentenced today to 210 months in prison after entering a guilty plea to a count of Attempted Coercion and Enticement of a Minor.  Arthur entered his guilty plea on September 17, 2024.

According to court documents, during the summer months of 2023, Bay Minette Police Department (“BMPD”) was called to a school to address an issue about a nude photo of a student that was being distributed at a school.  As part of the investigation into that incident, BMPD made contact with Arthur.  Arthur’s behavior during his interview with BMPD was suspicious.  Afterwards, teachers at the school began looking at the social media accounts of a 12-year-old child, and they discovered that Arthur was making inappropriate comments on the child’s social media posts.  A teacher took screenshots of those comments and provided them to law enforcement.

The 12-year-old was interviewed and indicated that Arthur had been sending her inappropriate text messages for about a year, beginning when she was 11 years old.  BMPD took the child’s phone into evidence and searched the phone.  They found the text messages with Arthur.  In those text messages, Arthur solicited the child to perform sex acts and produce naked images of herself.  Arthur used sexually explicit language to describe the acts he wanted to engage in with the child.  She did not encourage or respond positively to these comments.  On at least one occasion, the child reminded Arthur that she was 12.  After one of his comments about engaging in sexual activity, the child wrote “ur old. That’s rape, right?”  Arthur wrote “I think we should get together” and the girl responded, in part, “I’m only 12 I can’t get together with u.”  The child also repeatedly told Arthur to stop messaging her.

At sentencing, Judge DuBose imposed the 210-month sentence of incarceration and a 10-year term of supervised release upon his future release. During his term of imprisonment, Arthur will be subject to sex offender treatment, substance abuse testing and treatment, and mental health treatment.  Arthur will be required to register as a sex offender and is to have no contact with minors.  Arthur was ordered to pay $35,000 in restitution to the victims of his offenses and $5,100 in special assessments.

The Department of Homeland Security Investigations and Bay Minette Police Department investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Kacey Chappelear prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc/publications-resources