JUNE 15, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

OLATHE MAN SENTENCED FOR ATTEMPTING TO ENTICE A MINOR FOR SEX

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Bradley J. Schlozman, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that an Olathe, Kan., man has been sentenced in federal court for attempting to entice a minor to engage in illicit sex.

Matthew Hunter Leighton, 23, of Olathe, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs on Wednesday to eight years and one month in federal prison without parole.

On Jan. 18, 2006, Leighton pleaded guilty to attempting to entice a minor to engage in illicit sex. Leighton admitted that he made contact several times between July 8 and 19, 2005, with a person he believed to be a 13-year-old girl in the Kansas City area. In reality, the person was an undercover FBI agent. In a series of instant messages, e-mails and telephone calls during that period, Leighton discussed, in explicit language, meeting the girl for sex, and sent her an explicit picture of himself. He arrived to meet her on July 19, 2005, and was arrested by law enforcement officers. He had five condoms in his pocket at the time of his arrest.

Leighton also admitted that he has met about 100 girls in person that he initially met online, and that he has had sex with 10 of them, including several who were under the age of 18. Leighton has met and had sex with minor females on at least eight separate occasions.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia L. Phillips. It was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.