A 54-year-old Canadian father of five girls has been sentenced to 30 years in a federal penitentiary after he was convicted of traveling to Atlanta to have sex with an 11-year-old girl who turned out to be an undercover police officer.
Brian Schumaker, of Mississauga, Ontario, was arrested in August 2007, found guilty in a jury trial in April and sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta.
Schumaker also was convicted of attempting to entice a child to engage in sexual activity, and possession of child pornography. He also will have to serve 10 years’ supervised release and register as a sex offender.
“This prison sentence ensures that he will now be kept away from any other potential victims for many years to come,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a news release.
Prosecutors said that from July to August 2007, Schumaker used the Internet to try to arrange a meeting with a child under 12 for sexual activity. During the week of July 31, he traveled by car from Ontario to Atlanta to meet the child and attend a business conference at the Georgia World Congress Center.
The “child” turned out to be an undercover officer with the Alpharetta Police Department posing as an 11-year-old girl and her mother. Law enforcement officers were waiting for Schumaker when he arrived.
Officers said they recovered a gift he had bought for the girl and child pornography from his laptop computer and Palm device. Trial evidence showed that defendant boasted during chat sessions about having sex with girls as young as 12 years old in Canada.
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