Massachusetts Man Charged in Rhode Island on Federal Interstate Travel & Attempted Enticement Charges
PROVIDENCE, RI – A Wilmington, Massachusetts, man was arrested yesterday and charged by complaint in Rhode Island federal court, after allegedly travelling to Rhode Island to meet and have sexual contact with a person he believed to be a fourteen-year-old girl, announced United States Attorney Zachary A. Cunha.
Robert Consorti, 63, was arrested on Thursday by members of the Rhode Island State Police Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations after arriving in Warwick at a location where he believed he would be meeting with the girl.
As reflected in court documents, for more than a week prior to his arrest, Consorti allegedly communicated online and by text message with a person who he thought to be a young teenage girl, but who was, in reality, an East Providence Police Department Detective assigned to the ICAC Task Force.
It is alleged that, at Consorti’s direction, the communications rapidly turned sexual in nature, and that Consorti proposed that the two meet for sexual encounters. On Thursday, when Consorti arrived at a Warwick location where he was allegedly expecting to meet the 14-year-old, he was instead met by members of the ICAC Task Force and arrested. At the time of his arrest, law enforcement officers seized a backpack that allegedly contained condoms, lubricant, massage oils, and a vibrator from Consorti’s vehicle.
Consorti appeared on Thursday before a U.S. Magistrate, charged by way of a federal criminal complaint with attempted enticement of a minor to engage in illicit sexual activity and interstate travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual activity.
A federal criminal complaint is merely an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
This case is being brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney John P. McAdams.
The matter was investigated by the Rhode Island State Police ICAC Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations.
The ICAC Task Force is comprised of members of the Rhode Island State Police Computer Crimes Unit along with detectives from the Warwick Police Department, Cranston Police Department, East Providence Police Department, Pawtucket Police Department, Portsmouth Police Department, Bristol Police Department, Middletown Police Department, and Special Agents from Homeland Security Investigations.
