Texas Man Pleads Guilty to Traveling to Missouri for Illicit Sex with Two Children

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Texas man pleaded guilty in federal court today to traveling to Missouri to engage in sex with two minor sisters whose “father” (actually an undercover police detective) he met online.

John Paul Christian, 41, of San Marcos, Texas, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple to two counts of attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity and to one count of traveling across state lines to engage in illicit sexual conduct.

According to court documents, Christian communicated through an online social media site with a man he believed to be the father of two minor females, ages 11 and 15, on Feb. 19, 2014. The father was actually an undercover Kansas City, Mo., Police Department detective.

Christian called the undercover detective on his cell phone to discuss his interest in having sex with the girls, and sent e-mail and text messages to the undercover detective to arrange a meeting to further discuss this opportunity to have sex with his children. On Feb. 26, 2014, Christian sent a text to the undercover detective stating that he wanted to have sex with the 11-year-old girl first and describing all of the sex acts he desired to perform on and with her. On Feb. 28, 2014, Christian sent a $200 Money Gram to the undercover detective as partial payment of the $400 agreed price for sex with the girls.

On March 1, 2014, Christian traveled from Texas to Missouri, to a location where he believed the man and his daughters lived, with the intent to have sex with the girls as previously arranged. Christian arrived in a taxi at about 8:10 p.m. and was arrested as he got out of the taxi.

When he was taken into custody, Christian was in possession of two bags. According to court documents, one of the bags contained a “Hello Kitty” backpack doll, two “Hello Kitty” underwear outfits for young girls, two pairs of young girls’ panties, two cans of Red Bull, rope necklaces, Q-Tips and a teal iPod Nano with headphones. The other bag contained an Acer Chromebook laptop computer with power cables, a Samsung flip phone, and a bottle of Astroglide lubricant.

When officers searched Christian’s hotel room, according to court documents, they found a notebook with what appears to be a letter written to the 15-year-old daughter. The letter details the various sex acts that Christian was going to be engaged in with the sisters. Christian wrote that he wanted to get the 15-year-old girl pregnant so that they could have a “little baby girl together” that they in turn would sexually molest.

Under federal statutes, Christian is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of life in federal prison without parole, on each of the two enticement charges. Christian is also subject to a sentence of up to 30 years in federal prison without parole on the travel charge. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine A. Connelly. It was investigated by the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department in conjunction with the Human Trafficking Rescue Project.