A South Side man who tried to have sex with a young girl who turned out to be an FBI agent is headed to federal prison for more than seven years.
U.S. District Judge Christy Wiegand on Monday imposed 90 months on Thomas Hunt, 32, who worked at a Station Square restaurant at the time of the crime and used that location to arrange a tryst.
Hunt had been convicted of attempted receipt of material involving sexual exploitation of a child.
He was one of a dozen local men caught in recent years by an FBI unit set up to nab pedophiles arranging sex hookups online.
Hunt tried to meet a 13-year-old girl for sex in September and October 2021.
The case began in September 2021 when Hunt made contact on social media with someone he thought was 13. He chatted with her over several weeks, made sexual comments and groomed her.
He suggested they meet behind Joe’s Crab Shack, where he worked. They would smoke pot and then go to her Downtown apartment for sex. She said her dad lived with her but he was out of town.
On Oct. 11, 2021, he texted “meet behind Joe’s and we go to your dad’s?”
He said he’d been called in to work early that day.
The FBI set up surveillance at Joe’s and saw Hunt sitting on a bench, smoking and texting.
The next day, he texted again and said he was excited and wanted sex. The agent replied that she was in class and asked, “Can u wait.”
He didn’t want to wait, so he asked her to send him a vagina picture. The agent said she could not because she was in school. He got pushy, saying, “Come on girl. Go to the bathroom and get me a pic.”
That text is the basis for the count of attempted receipt of child porn.
The next day he tried again, saying he was so excited he couldn’t sleep. Later that morning, they arranged for her to walk to Joe’s for the meeting.
The agent told him she was walking across the Smithfield Street Bridge. Hunt was off that day but went to Station Square and was waiting there for her.
Agents took him into custody.
Torsten covers the courts for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Reach him at jtorsteno@gmail.com.
