A Fernandina Beach man has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for attempting to entice an 11-year-old child to engage in sexual activity. William Rand Paige Jr., 50, was ordered to serve a 10-year term of supervised release and to register as a sex offender after pleading guilty to the charges.
According to court documents, Paige was arrested on December 18, 2023, after an undercover FBI agent in Jacksonville identified him as an individual seeking to meet and engage in sexual activity with a child. Posing as a person with access to an 11-year-old child, the undercover agent was online in a social messaging app when he was contacted by an individual using the app user name “ah..904,” subsequently identified as Paige.
After learning the age of the “child,” Paige asked the agent if he and the “child” would “like her to be touched all over.” In a series of online conversations on this app and emails from November 29 through December 11, 2023, Paige discussed in graphic detail his desire to meet the “child” and engage in sexual activity with “her.” When his account on the app was banned by the administrator, Paige later established a different account on the same app and used it to continue communicating with the agent.
On December 4 and again on December 11, 2023, Paige sent the undercover agent three videos depicting young children being sexually abused. A review of Paige’s cellphone revealed it contained at least one photo and one video depicting the sexual abuse of a child, as well as the same email account used by Paige to communicate with the undercover agent about meeting the “child” for sex.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
This case serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of online predators and the importance of vigilance in protecting our children from those who would seek to harm them. The Justice Department will continue to work tirelessly to identify and prosecute individuals who seek to exploit and harm our most vulnerable citizens.
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Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Sex Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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