Cody J. Hansen, Attempting to Entice a Minor, Rhode Island 2021

A Massachusetts man has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for attempting to entice a minor and traveling to engage in illicit sex, announced United States Attorney Zachary A. Cunha.

Cody J. Hansen, 38, of Orange, MA., was sentenced on Tuesday by U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., to 120 months in federal prison to be followed by twenty years of federal supervised release.

Hansen engaged in a series of online communications, often of a sexual nature, with someone whom he believed to be a 12-year-old girl, and then traveled to Rhode Island with the intent of having sex with the girl and sexual contact with her younger sister.

In May 2018, Hansen posted an online classified advertisement seeking to connect with “someone that likes to play when the girl is passed out.” He later engaged in online communications with a person who responded to his posting, believing this person to be the caretaker of 12 and 8-year-old girls living in Rhode Island.

The undercover officer provided Hansen with an email address he could use to contact the 12-year-old girl, but in actuality, Hansen was communicating with an undercover Rhode Island State Police detective assigned to the Rhode Island Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.

Hansen was immediately arrested by members of the ICAC Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations after meeting with the person he believed to be the young girl’s caretaker on May 22, 2018.

Hansen pleaded guilty on December 15, 2021, to attempted enticement of a minor, attempted transfer of obscene material to a minor, and travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dulce Donovan.

The case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.

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