Cartersville man arrested, accused of planning to have sex with 8-year-old girl

Brian Travis Cowart

Credit: Paulding County Sheriff's Office

Credit: Paulding County Sheriff's Office

Brian Travis Cowart

A Cartersville man is in jail on multiple felony counts after authorities said he created a plan to have sex with an 8-year-old girl.

Brian Travis Cowart, 34, was arrested by Paulding County detectives after an investigation in which an undercover agent posed as the girl’s sister.

The investigation was opened Oct. 29 after a report of someone on social media requesting to have sex with girls between the ages of 5 and 10. Two days later, an undercover detective went online and contacted the suspect, later identified as Cowart.

“As a result of the online chat, Cowart offered a sum of money to perform sex acts on an 8-year-old girl,” Paulding County spokesman Sgt. Ashley Henson said.

Cowart believed he was communicating with the young girl’s older sister. He planned to meet the alleged victim’s sister at a retail store in Hiram on Nov. 1, where she would deliver the child to him, Henson said.

Detectives met Cowart in the parking lot of the store, and he was taken into custody.

Cowart is charged with criminal attempt to commit child molestation, criminal attempt to entice a child for indecent purposes and violation of the computer/electronic pornography and child exploitation prevention act. He was booked into the Paulding County Jail, where he remains without bond.

Detectives encourage anyone who has had any online contact with Cowart to call Lt. Starry Kilgore or Sgt. Lenny Carr of the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office’s Juvenile Investigations Division at 770-445-6105.

In other news: