39 year old Craig Maher, allegedly told a friend that he wanted to drug a female child between the ages of 4 and 14 and have sex with her. He also told the friend he wanted pictures of the act for his personal pleasure.
Butler County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Jason Owens said Maher was willing to pay specific prices for different sexual acts.
According to the criminal complaint filed in U.S District County in Cincinnati, Maher admitted to agents during the search of his home that he planned to drug the child and perform sex acts on her and take photographs of the acts. Maher, who is a computer programer, told the agents he had downloaded child pornography and they would find it on the computer equipment they seized from his house.
Sergeant Jason Owens stated that Mr. Maher was willing to pay specific prices for different sexual acts.
“He was willing to pay, to rape a little girl and now he can pay the price of going to jail for his intentions,” Owens said. “His ultimate goal was to adopt a child so he could have sex with her whenever he wanted. This investigation does not stop here, and we have a lot of work to do.”More charges against Mr. Maher are possible.
“The Butler County Sheriff’s Office is going to work closely with Homeland Security to work toward this guy receiving the maximum sentence possible,” Jones said. “People like Mr. Maher disgust me, and they do not belong in society. My detectives and Homeland Security worked quickly to take him off the street, and now he is behind bars where he belongs.”Maher is charged with attempting selling or buying of children in matters involving child pornography, which is a federal offense, according to a press release from the sheriff’s office.
If convicted, the minimum sentence is 30 years.
The investigation began on April 4, when a sheriff’s office confidential informant advised sheriff’s detectives that a person by the name of “Craig” had contacted them on Facebook stating he was “attempting to find a young female to have sex with,” according to federal court documents.
On April 12, a meeting was set up between the informant and Maher at McDonald’s on Dixie Highway in Hamilton.
“The CI showed a picture of a clothed prepubescent girl approximately 7 years old,” the court documents state, adding the child in the photo is now an adult.
Maher answered “she’s cute” and indicated that if the mother of the child was on drugs they could “do more.”
After being told the mother was not on drugs, Maher said the “best case scenario is to drug the child so she won’t wake up,” according to the complaint.
There was a suggestion by Maher that a large dose of “Benadryl, works very well,” according to court documents.
According to the complaint, Maher told the informant he would pay $250 if they had sex next to the sleeping child. He named prices of up to $500 that he would pay for sex acts with the child.
Maher also told the informant that he hoped the informant could find a mother that is addicted to drugs, get custody and take the child to Michigan, according to the complaint.
'His ultimate goal was to adopt a child so he could have sex with her whenever he wanted. This investigation does not stop here, and we have a lot of work to do.'On April 13, the informant set up a meeting with Maher and a 7-year-old girl. Maher said he would bring the medication and video equipment.
But on April 14, Maher called the informant and said he could not make it because something had happened to his ex-wife.
Between April 14 and Thursday, the informant were in contact several times before he got arrested.
“The Butler County Sheriff’s Office is going to work closely with Homeland Security to work toward this guy receiving the maximum sentence possible. People like Mr. Maher disgust me, and they do not belong in society,” Sheriff Richard K. Jones said in a press release.Source:NBC
