Clermont man caught in child-sex sting gets 20 years

A Clermont man who arrived at an Orlando hotel with a girls’ pink dress and condoms — after chatting for months with an undercover agent about his desire to rape an 8-year-old — was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Thursday, records show.

Prior to his arrest, Frederick M. Pohl Jr., 41, worked for an Orlando amusement park and was responsible for securing lap bars on kids and adults as part of his job, federal prosecutors said.

In a statement, the U.S.

Attorney’s Office didn’t reveal which park Pohl worked for, but said his employer had fired him when he was arrested and was “fully cooperative” with the investigation. There were “no known instances of misconduct” by Pohl at the park, the agency said.

The case began March 11, when Pohl reached out to what he thought was the father of an 8-year-old girl on an online chat service, according to a criminal complaint. In reality, the person he messaged was a Detroitbased agent with Homeland Security Investigations.

“i like young girls. … I would love someone as young as your daughters age,” Pohl said, early in their first chat.

The messages quickly became graphic, with Pohl describing in detail sex acts he wanted to perform on the fictional girl, the complaint shows. Soon, the agent and Pohl were making arrangements for Pohl to meet the father and daughter in Detroit, so he could rape the girl.

In addition to sending explicit messages to the “father,” Pohl also sexually propositioned the girl directly, during chats in which he thought she was behind the keyboard, the complaint said. He also sent the “father” nude photos to show to the “daughter,” authorities said.

In the chats, Pohl claimed he had previously abused children as young as 15, records show.

Though they initially planned for him to travel to Michigan, Pohl claimed in April that he had been injured in a car crash and couldn’t make the trip. So the planned meeting was shifted to May 21 at a Days Inn on Orange Blossom

Trail in show.

According to the complaint, as agents watched, Pohl drove from his home to a Walgreens, where he bought condoms, then to a Walmart, where he said in a message he was going to buy a bikini. Instead, he bought what he described as a “pretty pink dress with hearts on it.”

When he arrived at the hotel, he was arrested and confessed, agents said.

He pleaded guilty to attempting to entice a child for sex Aug. 6.

According to

Orlando, records court records,

Blessed.” After 10 days in her new studio, the 43-year-old was still trying to process the idea that she no longer lived in a shelter.

“That first night, I didn’t even have a bed, but I didn’t care,” said Morris, who has chronic health problems that left her frequently hospitalized and without housing for three years.

“I just piled all the blankets I had on the floor and slept on that. To look around and think, ‘This is my space,’ I don’t even have words. It’s just pretty cool.” Pohl had almost fallen into a similar trap in 2007, when he chatted with an agent posing online as a 13-year-old girl from Canada. He discussed visiting her but later backed out, telling her he lied and was “so sorry about that,” records show.

He also sent the agent suspected child porn images, authorities said.

Pohl is currently being held in the Marion County Jail.