A 50-year-old New Brunswick man who travelled to Ohio to meet a teenage girl has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for production of child pornography in the United States.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in northern Ohio says Joseph Haggerty was arrested last August after agents with Homeland Security Investigations in Texas received a tip that the man from St. Stephen, N.B., had been soliciting nude images from a child.
A news release says Haggerty flew to Cleveland from Toronto last August and upon his arrival, agents followed him to Linden Park in the suburb of Rocky River, where he met a teenage girl.
The girl told agents she had started talking to Haggerty on a messaging app in December 2016 and they subsequently engaged in hours-long Skype chats, in which the accused would direct her conduct.
She told relatives she was going on a camping trip for the weekend, but actually planned to go to a Lakewood hotel with Haggerty.
The news release says agents contacted the RCMP in New Brunswick and a search warrant was executed at Haggerty’s home, where police found nude images of a minor from Ohio, contact information for a minor in Texas, as well as evidence of other potential victims.
Haggerty had pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a child.
