Webster Man Sentenced For Enticing a Minor

ROCHESTER, N.Y.-- U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Joshua Stewart, 24, of Webster, N.Y., who was convicted of enticing a minor to perform sexual acts, was sentenced to 87 months in prison and 20 years supervised release by U.S. District Judge Charles J. Siragusa. 

          Assistant U.S. Attorney John J. Field, who handled the case, stated that on two separate occasions in 2010, the defendant used his cell phone to send texts to a 13 year old girl to entice her to have sex with him.

          This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

          The sentencing is the culmination of an investigation on the part of Special Agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James C. Spero, and the New York State Police, Troop E, under the direction of Major Mark Koss.