A convicted sex offender was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for molesting a 13-year-old boy less than a year after his release from prison.
Joshua Harris was on probation for a 2005 aggravated child molestation conviction in Walton County when the GBI learned he was having an inappropriate conversation with the teen, the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday in a news release.
Agents checked out the tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and learned the two started chatting through an online messaging application June 9, 2016. The boy said he was 13 years old and gay, according to the news release.
Harris and the child exchanged pornographic images and made plans to meet outside the teen’s home, authorities said. The boy gave Harris his telephone number and home address.
According to the DA’s office, Harris messaged the child later that day and said he was outside his residence.
“However, the defendant was scared off and drove away from the house when the victim’s grandfather returned to the residence,” prosecutors said in the news release.
Days later, in the early morning hours of June 12, Harris returned to the teen’s home. The boy met Harris outside, got in the man’s van and was driven to the end of the street, where they had sex, prosecutors said.
A search warrant was executed at Harris’ home July 25, 2016, after a forensic interview with the teen.
“During the execution of this warrant, the defendant stated he targeted his victims using two different internet messaging applications,” officials said.
A GBI agent asked Harris, now 38, if he had ever engaged in sexual relations with someone he knew to be a child.
“The defendant nodded and said, ‘I made a mistake,’” authorities said.
In the Walton County case, Harris also targeted a teenager using an online messaging application, according to officials. He had been sentenced to 10 years in prison and five years of probation, officials said.
In the Fulton County case, Harris was convicted of multiple charges, including aggravated child molestation, electronically furnishing obscene material to minors, criminal attempt to commit child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes and sexual battery.
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