Image 1 / 2
William Lee “Buddy” Pait, 41, of Bladenboro was charged Wednesday with soliciting a 14-year-old over the Internet by the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office. Pait was served a warrant for solicitation of a minor by computer at the Robeson County Jail and bail was set at $10,000.
The investigation began on Dec. 21 after Lee was arrested a week prior on similar charges in Cumberland County.
“The victim met him on MySpace,” said Lt. Kathy Torre of the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office.
MySpace is a social networking Web site that is popular with teens and young adults on the Internet. Pait is alleged to have posed as a 17-year-old male and began having cell phone conversations and chatting with the victim via computer about Nov. 2007, according to Torre.
Torre said the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office and Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office worked together to review cell phone and computer records that verified what the victim told them.
In the Cumberland County case, Pait was convicted in May 2008 of kidnapping first degree of a minor (principal). Pait is sentenced to serve a maximum of seven years in prison.
According to reports, Pait is alleged to have met his Cumberland County victim online also. In that incident, Pait met the Cumberland victim in Fayetteville in Oct. 2007. According to reports, he tried to force her into his car and is alleged to have fondled the Cumberland victim as she tried to escape.
Torre said the mother of the Lumberton teen read about Pait’s Cumberland County arrest in the paper and learned he wasn’t 17.
“The mother has friends in Bladen County,” said Torre.
Pait was convicted in 2004 in Bladen County on a charge of taking indecent liberties with a minor, according to the North Carolina Sex Offender Registry.
Post a Comment
