Man, 23, tried to lure girl, 13, authorities say

He was 23. She was 13. According to his master plan, he would travel from out of state on a motorcycle to pick her up at her Pembroke Pines home then they would head off to Canada to “start a new life together.”

For five months, Joseph Mitchell, of Abilene, Texas, primed the child with sex talk via text messages, Skype and cellphone calls, solicited her for nude photos and repeatedly requested that she prove her love for him, police say.

Mitchell now is being held without bond in the Broward Main Jail.

“The suspect routinely communicated with who he believed to be a 12-year-old child,” an arrest report said. “The suspect expressed on multiple occasions his endeavors to engage in sexual acts with the child and to unlawfully take the child away from her family to Canada where they would start a new life together.”

The girl’s mother went to police when she began to suspect her daughter was having an online relationship.

Police discovered that Mitchell, aka Daddy, had been communicating with the girl whom he called “baby” since December and had been sending her illicit photos of himself while coercing her to respond in kind, the report said.

When an undercover detective took over communications on the girl’s end, Mitchell professed his love for the child and stated “I love how much younger you are than me,” the report said.

On May 4, Mitchell told the girl he would be at her home to pick her up in two days, but first she should gather her birth certificate and Social Security card, steal gas money from her mother and write “a runaway note,” the report said.

Police learned that on that same day Mitchell was arrested in Georgia for shoplifting.

He was later transferred to Broward County to face seven charges including four counts of using a computer to seduce, solicit or lure a child.

Mitchell should be viewed as a flight risk, the report said.

“The suspect is currently a transient, has no source of income, no job, and expressed his endeavors to leave the country.”