PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A New Jersey man who flew to Rhode Island to have sex with who he thought was a 14-year-old girl he had befriended online has been sentenced to almost four years in federal prison, prosecutors said.
Amish Jayant Patel, 47, of Swedesboro, New Jersey, communicated online for nearly a month with a person he thought to be a 14-year-old ninth-grader, according to a statement Monday from the office of U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island, Aaron Weisman.
The person he was actually communicating with was a Rhode Island State Police detective, authorities said.
Patel sent photographs of himself and sexually explicit images, then arranged to meet for sex in January, according to prosecutors.
According to court documents, Patel arrived at T.F. Green Airport and was followed by police to a liquor store where he purchased alcohol, and then to a location where he was expecting to meet the girl. He was arrested without incident.
He pleaded guilty in March to traveling interstate to engage in illicit sexual activity.
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