Offender ‘thought he was in love’
‘Immature man’ awaits US prison sentence after plot to kidnap girl wound up with him shot. reports
When Troy George Skinner sat down at his computer to play games in late 2017, he struck up an online friendship that led to an escalating series of bad decisions.
In February next year, the cost of those decisions will see the Auckland man sent to a United States prison for up to 30 years.
Skinner, 28, made headlines in 2018 after travelling thousands of kilometres across the world to get shot, attempting to smash his way into the United States’ home of a 13-year-old girl he had met online.
Last week, in a court in eastern Virginia on the US east coast, Skinner cut a plea deal with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It saw him plead guilty to possession of child sex abuse material, described in the US law books as “child pornography”, as kidnapping and other charges were dropped.
Now, court documents have revealed Skinner’s escalation towards the attempted home invasion and alleged kidnapping.
The pair encountered each other in December 2017, on Steam, an online gaming platform.
Through Steam, Skinner had an existing online friendship with someone called Jenni, who was linked to the girl later known in court documents as RD.
At the outset, evidence showed Skinner initially believed RD was 18. “Nope, I’m 16,” she responded. Skinner replied: “Americans always act older than they are.”
At some stage over the ChristmasNew Year period, the conversation between the pair shifted to the Discord instant messaging app, popular with gamers but with a broad appeal because of its anonymity and privacy features on text and video chat.
It was during a video call on January 7, 2018, that Skinner told her he wanted to be her boyfriend. That was the first video contact that turned sexual and during which it is clear RD is uncomfortable with the prospect.
She tells Skinner she’s in a relationship with someone else and, “feels that sometimes she’s just being used for her body”.
“Okay,” says Skinner. “So do you want to stick with just being friends with me?” Yes, she said.
Skinner’s lawyer, assistant federal public defender Laura Koenig, later told the court it took a few days before that “relationship” turned again to sex. “And RD, in the Discord chats, is indicating that she wants that.”
Koenig: “Is it a perfect relationship? Of course not. I mean, online relationships are just a different beast.”
There were thousands of pages of chats between the two, including obscene internet memes and in one case disturbing rape “fan fiction” featuring a teacher and a student.
Evidence in the case showed they exchanged sexually explicit images. When the sexual contact occurred during video calls, Skinner would capture and save the video without RD’s knowledge.
In the weeks that followed, Skinner encouraged her to join him in increasingly graphic sexual displays.
In late January, they talked about meeting in real life. And they talked of the age of consent. Skinner talked of her coming to New Zealand: “It’s 16 in New Zealand. It would be fine. It’s 16,” he told her.
Not here in the US, she replied. If she’s under 18, he would have to be under 21. The discussion went as far as RD pulling up a website showing the US law — evidence he knew he was breaking US law, if not NZ law, the prosecution said.
In March, RD told him she had celebrated her 17th birthday — in reality, her 14th birthday. Birthdays, arguments with parents, talk of drinking alcohol, homeschooling — RD’s life was captured in Skinner’s videos and chat logs, even her home address at one point.
The contact was constant until, in May, RD brought it to an end. Some messaging continued, including threats by Skinner to self-harm. The final message exchange was on June 4, just over a fortnight before Skinner made yet another catastrophically poor decision.
On June 20, 2018, Skinner flew out of Auckland for Washington Dulles International Airport, about 40km west of Washington DC. Arriving June 21, he bought a Greyhound bus ticket to Richmond and took a room at the airy and stylish Richmond Hostel.
The next morning, Skinner rose and travelled north to Glen Allen, on the outskirts of Richmond. Once there, he found a Walmart superstore and went shopping off a short list he had written.
In two separate purchases, Skinner bought first a small pepper spray canister and then, together, a folding pocket knife and duct tape.
The items went into his small rucksack, which held little more than a few pieces of clothing and travel documents, then he moved on.
Skinner’s journey was close to its end. Just 30 minutes drive away was Goochland, the rural township where RD lived. Arriving there, he unfolded the blade from the pocket knife and tried to enter her house.
His first attempt was through a sliding glass door into the basement. He failed but his efforts alerted both RD and her mother. Alarmed, the pair retreated upstairs where RD’s mother called the girl’s father.
RD’s mother took a pistol and confronted Skinner as he tried to enter through a different door.
Ignoring warnings to leave, he picked up a paving stone and hurled it through a window. Leaning inside the house, his upper body inside the door and hand reaching for the interior lock, RD’s mother fired two shots, hitting him in the neck.
When officers of the Goochland Country Sheriff arrived, they found Skinner lying in a neighbour’s yard. What happened, he was asked. I was
He could have asked her for a picture of her ID or something. He could have done that online. Prosecution
shot, he replied, trying to break a window to get to my girlfriend.
Nearby, they found his two mobile phones. On one, he had the copy of a graphic sexual video of RD.
Skinner, his lawyer later told the court, was an “immature man who thought he was in love and acted improperly based on that”.
The kidnapping and other charges from the June 22, 2018 assault on RD’s home would have sent Skinner away for years.
As it turned out, the initial court arguments were on charges of “child pornography”, as the manufacture and possession of child sexual exploitation material is described in US law.
Skinner’s lawyers tried to argue that Skinner embarked on the “relationship” in New Zealand, where the age of consent was 16 and when he genuinely believed his sexual engagement with RD was legal.
Was it fair to impose the mandatory 15-year minimum sentence for manufacture of “child pornography” when he believed what he was doing was legal — because it was, in his own country?
“And there’s absolutely no evidence to suggest that he was looking for a minor to exploit, looking for some young person to exploit sexually.”
The prosecution said: “He could have asked her for a picture of her ID or something. He could have done that online.”
The case will not go to trial. Skinner has taken a plea deal, accepting he manufactured child sex abuse material featuring RD. The remaining charges were dropped.
Next February, he finds out just how many years — some between 15 and 30 — he will spend in a US prison.