A man from Cedar Park was put on criminal probation Friday because he thought he was meeting a 13-year-old girl for sex.
After reading a background report made by probation officers, Judge Thomas West of Waco’s 19th State District Court put Henry Larry Spradling III on criminal probation for 10 years.
Spradling, who is 45 years old, pleaded guilty on January 22 to soliciting a child online.
An affidavit says that Spradling told a McLennan County undercover detective, who was pretending to be a 13-year-old girl online, that he had a 12-year-old girlfriend and talked about having sex with her in 2021.
It is said that Spradling told the undercover detective, “Something about a young girl just does it for me.”
The affidavit says that Homeland Security Investigations in Austin told local police about a possible case of child abuse that started in Fresno, California. They have now found at least 10 juvenile victims.
A local police officer found that a man named Spradling was “in communication with a 12-year-old juvenile and was communicating in a sexually explicit manner.”
The investigator found that Spradling “was also in communication with a large number of other possible minors and was discussing with undercover agents committing crimes against real people,” the affidavit says.
An agent from McLennan County started talking to Spradling online by pretending to be a 13-year-old girl.
An affidavit says that Spradling told the detective about his 12-year-old ex-girlfriend and “began to discuss having sexual intercourse with her.”
“Spradling also said that he watched pornography and started to ask for pictures of the child’s ‘booty,'” the allegation says.
According to the statement, he sent a rough video and said, “Please don’t show anyone.” He is in custody as per the authorities.