Man arrested on child sex charges
Moore
By Tyler Stocks
The Daily Reflector
Monday, July 9, 2018
A Grimesland-area man who deputies said was in possession of a sex doll that resembled a young girl was arrested Monday on charges he tried to get an acquaintance help him target an actual child.
On June 12, Michael Wayne Moore, 34, of Grimesland, tried to gain the assistance of a person who alerted Pitt County Sheriff’s Office deputies to the scheme, officials said in a Monday afternoon news conference.
That person, who officials would not identify, told deputies Moore was seeking help in finding a young girl, Major Paula Dance said during the news conference. The informant told deputies Moore wanted to lure a child into the woods and sexually assault the child. Moore did not have a specific girl in mind, Dance said.
Detectives began an investigation and arrested Moore at his residence on Monday. They found the sex doll that resembled a child during the arrest, Dance said.
“We want to catch these guys and make sure these guys are taken off the street,” Dance said. “It’s upsetting to know we have people in our community with such vile thoughts and the propensity to go as far to try to solicit someone to help them lure a child into the woods for the purpose of rape.”
Moore in 2016 was investigated for attempting to solicit sex with a minor female child, Dance said. “Our investigators did a really good job in making sure through this investigation, they were able to stop such a vile crime from happening in our county.”
Moore was charged with solicitation to commit first-degree statutory rape of a child under 13 by an adult and one count of solicitation to commit first-degree statutory sex offense with a child.
Moore was jailed at at the Pitt County Detention Center under a $400,000 bond. He is expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday morning.
Contact Tyler Stocks at tstocks@reflector.com and 329-9566. Follow him on Twitter @TylerstocksGDR
