Police: Man accused of sending inappropriate messages
A 27-year-old Ansonia man is accused of sending inappropriate messages to a 13-year-old boy through Instagram earlier this year, according to state police.
Michael Bernaud turned himself in Wednesday and is charged with one count of risk of injury to a child, according to Connecticut State Police.
According to state police, they began an investigation in March after learning that Bernaud had been communicating with a 13-year-old boy through Instagram sporadically since January. The boy’s parents became aware of the communications after Bernaud offered to drive their son to an event in Rhode Island, according to the warrant for Bernaud’s arrest.
When state police spoke with the boy, he said he and Bernaud first began talking after joining the same Instagram group chat and they eventually became friends. However, between January and March he said he’d had some “weird, possibly ‘pedophile type’ conversations with Bernaud,” the warrant states.
On one occasion Bernaud asked him a sexual question, and on another occasion Bernaud asked him to send a picture of himself shirtless making a suggestive movement, according to the warrant.
Police later obtained copies of some of the conversations the boy had had with Bernaud and found more concerning messages, the warrant states. It says that in one exchange, Bernaud asked the boy to “just flirt with me sometimes to make me happy,” when the boy refused to send a shirtless picture.
Bernaud is free on $50,000 bond and is scheduled to appear at state Superior Court in Waterbury May 1, police said.