Brett Gold is “the most dangerous type of incorrigible sexual predator,” according to U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.
Gold, who is 35, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, was sentenced yesterday (September 27th) for traveling interstate to Maryland for the purpose of engaging in sex with a minor.
Gold had used an internet chat room to engage in sexual conversations with a fellow user who told him she was only 13 years old. According to his guilty plea, between January 14, 2002 and March 13, 2002, Gold engaged the girl in numerous explicit sexual conversations over the Internet. During these conversations, he requested that the 13 year-old send photographs to his post office box address. Gold also instructed the girl not to put a return address on the envelope.
Gold made numerous requests to meet so that they could have sex and also sent her several pictures displaying his genitalia. He asked the girl more than a few times if she was with the FBI or the police.
Gold then traveled to Maryland to meet the girl for sex. What he did not know was that his correspondent was in fact an undercover FBI agent posing as a 13 year-old girl.
There is reason to believe that Gold strategically planned to seek out young girls via the Internet in order to lure them into having sex with him. Seven years ago, at the age of 28, Gold used strikingly similar tactics to entrap a real thirteen year old girl. He was then convicted of carnal knowledge of a minor after “having sex with a thirteen-year old girl whom he had met and pursued during internet chat sessions.”
Gold was still on probation when he traveled from Virginia to Maryland this year to meet another thirteen year old girl for sex pursuant to an FBI sting operation. According to the court record, Gold is a convicted sex offender who has been registered with the Criminal Record Exchange in Richmond, Virginia since May 2000. The registry has an expiration date of May 18, 2010.
“Convicted child sex offenders are cruising internet chat rooms, trying to engage more children in discussions with the ultimate goal of enticing them to meet and have sex,” said United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “This is the most dangerous type of incorrigible sexual predator, and I am grateful to the FBI and our prosecutors for their proactive efforts to stop convicted pedophiles before they abuse more children.”
Gold was sentenced yesterday to serve 150 months in prison followed by 5 years of supervised release. He was originally sentenced to serve 150 months in prison on April 16, 2004, but the government appealed the original sentence because the court departed downward from the guideline range of 168-210 months. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit called the defendant a “recidivous pedophile,” and concluded that there was no basis for a departure from the sentencing guidelines. The appellate court therefore reversed the sentence and remanded the case for r