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Rensselaer County resident Lawrence Belcher, age 37, of Troy, pleaded guilty to attempting to coerce and entice a child to engage in sexual acts with him Thursday, July 28, in federal court in Albany.
According to the US Attorney’s Office in the Northern District, between January and April 2022 Belcher sent sexually explicit text messages to someone he thought was a 13-year-old boy.
He eventually asked to meet the teen in person so the two could engage in sex acts in his car, prosecutors said.
Belcher was arrested in April 2022 after police said he traveled to a motel in Schenectady County to meet the boy for sex.
Belcher was a registered sex offender at the time of his arrest with a prior misdemeanor conviction for sexually abusing a child younger than 14 years old.
He now faces between 10 years and life in prison when he’s sentenced on Monday, Nov. 28.
The case was prosecuted as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood, a coordinated effort between local, state, and federal agencies to track down individuals who exploit children using the internet.
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