A Connecticut man flew to Colorado last weekend intending to have sex with a 9-year-old girl and her mother, but was arrested in a police sting in Cañon City instead, officials said.
Christopher Scott Bates was arrested Saturday for investigation of attempting to sexually exploit a child and sexually assault a child, Cañon City Police Capt. Allen Cooper said.
A Cañon City police officer posing on the Internet as a 28-year-old woman with a young daughter corresponded with Bates about 20 times by e-mail and 15 times in phone conversations.
“He told me that the more he thought about having a family, the more interested in younger and younger girls he became,” Officer Michaele Sage said in a court document.
The suspect denied ever having been with a girl that young but said he would like to. He also said it would be OK if the mother was with her daughter, according to police.
Bates, who worked in the advertising department of a newspaper in Norwich, Conn., said he wanted a relationship where he could have sex with both the mother and the daughter.
They talked about the woman and her daughter moving to Norwich and establishing a family where they could have sex, the court record says.
Bates allegedly sent 11 photographs of nude children to the undercover officer. He flew to Colorado intending to stay from Oct. 27 to Nov. 4 with the woman and her daughter. They arranged to meet near a carwash after Bates landed in Colorado Springs and drove in a rental car to Cañon City.
He was arrested when he arrived in the blue car he had described.
Bates was being held Tuesday in the Fremont County Detention Center. Bail was set at $50,000. Cooper said this case is very similar to 30 other cases his office has investigated.
“They think they are smarter than the police or almost anybody else,” Cooper said. “They go online because they think it offers them anonymity.”
Some women actually do make contact with men who wish to have sex with their children, Cooper said.
He said one woman held her daughter down while a man sexually assaulted her. Some men have molested many children, Cooper said.
Authorities in Connecticut served a warrant on Bates’ house and his work and private computers. They want to find out if Bates has more child pornography or has corresponded with other offenders. They also are looking for evidence that he may have molested children.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
