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FBI Says Man Tried to Buy Boys for Sex on Internet Updated 8:01 PM ET June 15, 2000 HOUSTON (Reuters) - A Georgia man has been arrested in Texas and charged with trying to buy two elementary school boys for sex after FBI agents monitoring the Internet identified him as a pedophile, the agency said on Thursday. Jonathan Christopher Wood was arrested on June 3 after traveling to Houston from Perry, Georgia, with the intention of buying the boys and taking them back to Georgia for illegal sex, the FBI said in a statement. Wood, 53, was arrested after arriving at an agreed-upon meeting place with $12,000 in cash for the purchase, the FBI said. Brian Loader, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Houston field office, told Reuters the arrest came as a result of FBI monitoring of Internet chatrooms. "He was identified by our Crimes Against Children Task Force as a person who was actively seeking to purchase children for sexual exploitation. He was using the Internet," Loader said. Loader declined to say whether an FBI agent had posed as a seller but he said that no other arrests had been made and that no children had been at risk. A federal criminal complaint filed against Wood alleges that he traveled across state lines with intent to engage in prohibited sexual relations with a minor. If convicted, he faces a prison sentence of up to 15 years and a fine. Wood had recently moved to Georgia from Arizona, where he had owned a company that provided Internet access, and he had also previously lived in California, Loader said. Also on Thursday, Texas Attorney General John Cornyn announced the arrest of five men charged with aggravated sexual assault for allegedly having sex with a 12-year-old girl they contacted through an Internet chatroom. Between December 1999 and May 2000, the girl, from Schertz, Texas, near San Antonio, exchanged messages with the men in an Internet chatroom that allegedly led to meetings and sex. She later told her parents, who contacted police. Napster Aims to Promote New Artists, Small Labels (Previous story) Microsoft Defends Request for Stay From Appeals Court (Next story)   Archive: Fri Jun 16  Thu 15  Wed 14  Tue 13  Mon 12  Sun 11  Sat 10

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