A New York registered sex offender has been arrested for allegedly sending “sexually explicit material” to an 11-year-old Bay State child.
FBI Boston agents have nabbed David Fernandes III, a registered sex offender from Lagrangeville, N.Y., after the 27-year-old man allegedly sent obscenity to a Massachusetts child.
“Anyone willing to sexually exploit children deserves to feel the full force of the law,” FBI Boston Acting Special Agent in Charge James Crowley said in a statement.
“The FBI has arrested David Fernandes, a registered sex offender, for sending sexually explicit material to an 11-year-old child in Massachusetts,” Crowley added. “Each time we’re able to step in and protect a child from further sexual exploitation, it’s a good day.”
Back in March of 2019, Fernandes was convicted in New York of disseminating indecent material to a minor, and he received a sentence of five years’ probation. He completed the sentence last September.
Then in October, the feds allege that Fernandes sent an obscene photo to an 11-year-old. Meanwhile, at the time he allegedly engaged in this felony offense involving a child, he was required to register as a sex offender.
The mother of the 11-year-old child told Holden Police that she had found sexually explicit images and communications on her child’s phone.
Her daughter also told her that her 12-year-old friend had also been communicating with the suspect, whose phone number ended in 4245.
The feds found more than 4,000 messages exchanged between the 11-year-old’s phone and the suspect’s phone between Oct. 4 and 8. In the messages, the user of the 4245 phone identified himself as a 26-year-old man, and he allegedly transmitted sexually explicit videos and photos of an adult man to the child’s phone.
The suspect allegedly texted to the child, “I wanna feel u,” “Like genuinely feel inside u” and “I wanna be all the way inside you.”
The child’s friend told law enforcement that she began communicating with the suspect, who identified himself to her as “David,” in September and communicated with him on Snapchat, Roblox, and through video chats on Google Meet.
The child said “David” requested sexually explicit pictures and videos of the child, and that she transmitted them to him, mostly via Snapchat.
Fernandes was charged with one count off transferring obscene material to a minor, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and one count of committing the offense while being required to register as a sex offender, which carries a mandatory consecutive sentence of 10 years in prison.
The feds urge anyone who may have encountered Fernandes, who used the Snapchat user names “tazjazz,” “diamondboy24k,” “itsmagikyouknow,” and “retrovxrse, or whose child may have had any communications with Fernandes, to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324).