Stamford man allegedly tried to lure minors to Vermont ski house for sex

A Connecticut man persuaded a woman to bring her daughter to his Vermont ski house so he could “train’ the girl in sexual subservience, federal authorities said after his arrest Friday.

John Griffin, 44, of Stamford, also tried to lure other minors for the same purpose, authorities said. Griffin faces three counts of using a facility of interstate commerce to attempt to entice minors to engage in unlawful sexual activity. He appeared by video from the lockup in federal court in New Haven. Advised of his rights, Griffin did not enter a plea and was held pending a detention hearing in Vermont.

From April to July 2020, Griffin used the messaging applications Kik and Google Hangouts to communicate with people purporting to be parents of minor daughters, federal authorities said. Griffin wrote that a “woman is a woman regardless of her age,” authorities said. He sought to persuade parents to let him train their daughters to be sexually submissive, according to the indictment.

In June 2020, Griffin advised the mother of two minor daughters that she had to ensure one daughter was “trained properly,” federal officials said. Griffin later transferred over $3,000 to the Nevada woman for plane tickets so she and her 9-year-old daughter could fly to Boston’s Logan airport. Griffin picked them up in his red Tesla Model X in July and drove them to his Ludlow, Vermont house, where the indictment says the daughter was “directed to engage in, and did engage in, unlawful sexual activity.”

Griffin tried to entice two other children over the internet to engage in sexual activity, officials said. In April 2020, he proposed a “virtual training session” over a video chat that would include him instructing a woman and her 14-year-old daughter at his direction, according to the indictment. In June 2020, Griffin proposed to the purported mother of a 16-yearold daughter that she take a “little mother-daughter trip” to the Ludlow ski house for sexual training, authorities said.

Griffin faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison on each count. Also, the federal government intends to seek forfeiture of his Ludlow house, his Tesla, a Mercedes and other property that was used in the commission of the charged offenses, authorities said.