Lankan charged in US for seeking sex with underage girl
16 May 2015 06:48 am
A 23-year-old Sri Lankan was charged for attempted sexual encounter with an underage girl he met via Craigslist in US.
Shabeeb Ahamed Mohamed Shaheed was charged Wednesday with one count of traveling to meet a minor, one count of use of computer for solicitation of a minor, and one count of attempted lewd or lascivious battery.
He had traveled by taxi to Starbucks on Palm Bay Road in hopes of having a sexual encounter with an underage girl he met via Craigslist, said Yvonne Martinez, Palm Bay police spokeswoman.
Instead, police officers arrested him: The "girl" he had been repeatedly emailing and texting was an undercover detective with the department's Special Victims Unit.
Shaheed remains incarcerated at the Brevard County Jail Complex, and his bond was set at $85,000.
"Mr. Shaheed thought he was talking to a girl under the age of 16 and in his communications with her he validated several times that he knew her age," Det. Ursula Cowan stated in a press release.
"He was very specific with what he wanted to do with her, and based on the evidence we gathered we were able to support probable cause for these charges," Cowan stated.
(Florida Today)