Plantation Man Arrested Twice In A Week For Soliciting Minors For Sex
MIAMI (CBS4) - For the second time in less than a week, a Plantation man is facing charges of soliciting a child for sex.
Investigators and parents say the case highlights the need for parents to pay more attention to their child's activities online and through text messages.
Plantation Police say Andrew Bryan-Spence, 21, tried to lure a child from Washington and also texted a picture of his private parts to an 11-year-old South Florida boy.
The parents of that boy spoke exclusively to CBS 4's Carey Codd Thursday night.
"You're sitting back, you're hearing this and you're going, 'This can't be happening,'" the boys' father said.
Police say the boys' parents found out about the text messages and immediately contacted law enforcement. Police said Bryan-Spence continued a lengthy texting conversation about the boys' genitalia.
The arrest report shows Bryan-Spence asked the boy questions like, 'when is your mom not home' and 'wanna go to the Everglades?'
The boys' parents were surprised at the volume of texts.
"I realized that my son had become an obsession," the father said. "That (Bryan-Spence) was going to get his prize no matter what."
Police searched Bryan-Spence's home and arrested him there last week.
The parents say moms and dads should snoop through their child's cellphone and Facebook pages and talk to their kids every day about new people in their kids' lives.
"As long as they're under our roof, no, there's no privacy that exists anymore," the boys' mother said. "Just trust."
The boys' father said he's learned that parents should worry less about stranger danger and more about the people in your child's life everyday.
"If you're not talking to your child, if you're not involved with them every day, you're going to miss out," he said. "The cellphone you're using the protect them is the same cellphone that's being used to get them."
CBS 4 News first told you about Bryan-Spence in May 2011. That's when he was arrested for a similar crime. That case is still pending.
Bryan-Spence is being held without bond in the Broward County Jail. CBS 4 News spoke briefly to his attorney Thursday but the attorney said he could not answer questions.
Plantation Police say they want to know if there are other victims in the community.
