A native of Greece who flew to Denver with the expectation that he would be able to have sex with children pleaded guilty today in federal court.
Georgios Sgouros was arrested in June 2010 at Denver International Airport, where he expected to meet a woman he had been corresponding with in an internet chat room and who had said Sgouros could molest her 5 and 7-year-old daughters. The woman was actually an undercover Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent who set up a sting to catch child predators.
Sgouros pleaded guilty to one count of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. At sentencing, the maximum he could receive is nearly 25 years in prison. However, prosecutors have agreed to recommend a sentence of 10 years. Chief U.S. District Judge Wiley Daniel will ultimately decide Sgouros’s sentence at a hearing scheduled for March 14.
Prosecutors have also agreed to recommend that Sgouros serve at least part of his sentence in Greece, where Sgouros said his wife and family could visit him.
At one point during today’s hearing, Daniel asked Sgouros why he wanted to fly to the United States from Athens. Speaking softly, Sgouros spoke of a “fantasy” but said, “I’m not sure if I would do that for real.”
He then acknowledged, though, that he thought the woman he was meeting would allow him to molest her young daughters.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com.
