A man walked 351 miles from an Indianapolis suburb to Wisconsin to have sex with a 14-year-old girl, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. Tommy Lee Jenkins, 32, has been charged with using a computer to attempt to persuade, induce or entice a minor to engage in unlawful sex. According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Jenkins began exchanging instant messages with an underage girl named ‘Kylee’ who was living in Neenah, Wisconsin. Jenkins, who has an alleged history of inappropriate behavior with minors, had recently moved from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to Whitetown, Indiana. During his efforts to groom her, Jenkins demanded sexually explicit photos from ‘Kylee’ and tried to initiate plans to have sex with the child. After ‘Kylee’ refused numerous requests to visit Jenkins in Indiana, he decided to walk a 351-mile march from his home to meet the girl. Along the way, Jenkins reportedly continued to send sexually explicit messages and update her on his current location. The Oshkosh Northwestern reports that he told ‘Kylee’ that he wanted to have 500 kids with the underage girl, including one within the same year. On October 10, he arrived in Milwaukee where someone bought him a bus ticket to Neenah. Unbeknownst to Jenkins, ‘Kylee’ was actually a Winnebago County Sheriff’s Deputy assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. When he arrived in Winnebago County, Jenkins was arrested by local deputies and a special agent from the FBI. For his crime, Jenkins faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum life sentence if convicted. United States Attorney Matthew D. Krueger said: ‘Our nation faces an epidemic of child sexual abuse, with the Internet making it too easy for predators to communicate with children across the country.’ ‘The Justice Department is committed to working with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to prosecute child sexual abuse aggressively.’ Oshkosh Northwestern reports that Jenkins was arrested in 2011 in Winnebago County on two counts of repeated first-degree sexual assault of a minor. Those charges were later lessened to four counts of child abuse He allegedly rubbed a 7-year-old boy’s genitals and told the child they would get in trouble if he told anyone. Jenkins was also accused of groping an 8-year-old boy in a similar manner. When confronted by investigators, he said both boys were lying about the incidents. Jenkins pleaded no contest to four child abuse charges and was sentenced to four years of probation. He was jailed for 360 days.
