Escambia Man Sentenced On Federal Child Exploitation Charges

November 4, 2016

An Escambia County man has been sentenced federal prison for child exploitation crimes.

Robert M. Grafton Jr., 30, was sentenced today to 15 years and will be required to register as a sex offender. A jury convicted Grafton of attempted enticement of a minor for sex, and Grafton also pled guilty to possession of child  pornography just prior to jury selection for the trial.

At trial, the government presented evidence that in May 2015, Grafton communicated online with an undercover law enforcement officer for the purpose of meeting a 12-year-old special needs child for sexual activity. Grafton was arrested when he arrived at the arranged meeting location in Pensacola. A search of his cellular telephone and digital media at his residence revealed numerous images and videos of child pornography. This included electronic folders in a hidden partition, which contained child pornography involving infants and toddlers.

“Tragically, the advantages of advanced technology also bring opportunities for child predators to contact and victimize the most vulnerable members of our communities,” said United States Attorney Canova. “Together with our law enforcement partners, we will continue to aggressively pursue and prosecute offenders who seek to harm children.”

“This predator attempted to target the most vulnerable in our society, a special needs child,” said Susan L. McCormick, special agent in charge of HSI Tampa. “The hard work of our HSI special agents and partners prevented him from harming a child, and our communities are safer with him behind bars.”

The case was investigated by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, Pensacola Police Department, Gulf Breeze Police Department, and other agencies that are part of the North Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Comments

3 Responses to “Escambia Man Sentenced On Federal Child Exploitation Charges”

  1. Anon on November 6th, 2016 12:49 pm

    @Pete. Unfortunately there are disgusting pigs that actually make it. Someone from my hometown just got sentenced for being one of these sorry pieces of garbage. There are a bunch of ways they go about catching them and none of them making me feel like a child under 15 should have access to a lot of technology lol

  2. anne 1of2 on November 4th, 2016 10:03 am

    The Lord has a job for each of us on this earth and I am thankful for the people that go after these sub-humans. How Leo’s hold their tempers when arresting these people amazes me.

  3. Pete on November 4th, 2016 8:45 am

    I have a question for anyone that may know or maybe for a Law Enforcement agency. I greatly appreciate the nasty, disgusting, hard work or L.E.O.’s have to do to catch these wastes of oxygen to protect our children. Unfortunately these stories of arrests seem to be happening more and more frequently, really scary for all of us. Now to the question: where in the world do the materials these wastes of oxygen always seem to have come from? This guy had child pornography involving INFANTS and TODDLERS? Come on. I got sick to my stomach when I read that, still trying to get it out of my head. How sick have we as a society become? Now like I said earlier my hats off to everyone that helps catch these wastes of oxygen. Without the people like the one in this article I figure there would not be a demand for such filth but there is a obviously a demand. Who seeks the material makers out? The FED’s, local L.E., has anyone heard? I keep seeing the end result like the one above but where are these demonized material makers at? Just wonder if anyone has seen or heard. I would like to see them pay the price. I know they will eventually but I don’t want to wait until they meet our Creator for judgment.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News