Show-Me State Times

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig on Wednesday sentenced a registered sex offender to a decade in prison for crossing state lines to engage in sex with a minor.

Joshua T. Wilson, 23, of Monroe County, Missouri, met the 16-year-old victim in the spring of 2022. Wilson, a registered sex offender, and the teen then began interacting almost daily via online apps. They engaged in sexual conversations and exchanged sexual images. Wilson also met up with the teen and took her to Kansas. He engaged in unlawful sexual activity with her during the trip.

Wilson pleaded guilty in April to a charge of transporting a minor across state lines to engage in sexual activity.

The FBI and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dianna Edwards prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's 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. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.