After meeting a teenager online, a 28-year-old Gwinnett County man allegedly invited the teen and a friend to his home so the three could play video games. But Snellville police say the man had other intentions.
Matthew Ronald Crawford is accused of enticing the two boys, ages 13 and 15, for sex, according to police. And it wasn't the first time Crawford has been accused of preying on young victims through social media, court records show.
Using a phony Facebook profile under the name "Matt Smoker," Crawford communicated online with one of the teenagers about video games, according to a police report obtained by the AJC.
Crawford and the teen met several times before the man invited the victim to his Timberline Trace home Sunday evening, police said. The teen later told investigators he had been to Crawford's several times before to play games.
Crawford met the teen and his friend Sunday at a Grayson Wendy's, according to Snellville police. Then, the two youths got into Crawford's SUV, and the man drove them to his home.
"While they was playing video games, he started making sexual advances to one," Capt. Harold Thomas with Snellville police told Channel 2 Action News.
One of the teens told police Crawford offered him a marijuana and offered to perform a sexual act before grabbing the boy's shorts, the police report states. The youths ran out of the house and called police.
Officers arrested Crawford and charged him with two counts of enticing a child for indecent purposes, both felonies, Gwinnett County jail records show. Crawford was booked into jail just after midnight Monday and remained there Wednesday evening, held without bond.
Gwinnett County courts records and a 2010 incident report show Crawford was arrested in 2010 on the same charge in a similar case.
In that case, Crawford is accusing of meeting a 14-year-old on MySpace and communicating with the teen for more than a year online and through text messages, police said. The teen told police he had met Crawford once and that he had gotten into Crawford's vehicle, the report states.
"Are you going to take off your clothes or do I have to take them off for you?" Crawford asked the teen, according to police.
The teen told police he declined to participate in an sexual activity and Crawford drove him home. In March 2010, Crawford allegedly texted the teen to say he was planning to come to his house, but the teen told his mother, who called police, the report states.
Crawford was later arrested and charged with enticing a child, according to police. That case is pending in Gwinnett Superior Court, records show.
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