PEORIA, Ill. – A Peoria man will spend more than eleven years in prison after attempting to entice a minor online.
The Department of Justice says 43-year-old Joshua Michael Williams will also have ten years of supervised release after his sentence, and must register as a sex offender. He pleaded guilty in October last year.
Prosecutors say Williams reportedly engaged in online chats in January and February 2024 with a person he believed to be the stepfather of an 11-year-old female. The alleged stepfather was willing to let the stepdaughter be used for sex acts.
Williams had expressed an interest in meeting with the alleged minor, and said he wanted to engage in sexual acts with another minor in the past. He then arranged to meet the daughter, and was arrested at the pre-arranged meeting place.
U.S. District Judge Jonathan Hawley at the sentencing hearing said the only good thing about what happened was that there was no 11-year-old, stating an 11-year-old could have easily had their life altered by such conduct.
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