JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Fernandina Beach man will spend at least 10 years in federal prison, with the possibility of facing up to a life sentence, after pleading guilty to attempting to entice an 11-year-old for sexual activity, the Department of Justice said in a release Tuesday.
William Paige, 50, was arrested on Dec. 18, 2023, after a weeks-long FBI investigation to locate people who were using the internet to try and engage in sexual activity with children.
Starting on Nov. 29, 2023, an undercover FBI agent in Jacksonville posed as a person with access to an 11-year-old child on an online messaging app, and was contacted by an individual under the username "ah..904" who was later identified as Paige.
According to the release, the agent and Paige continued conversations on the app and through emails from Nov. 29 to Dec. 11, in which Paige discussed his desire to meet the "child" and engage in sexual activity after learning her age.
On Dec. 11, Paige sent the agent several videos of children being sexually abused, the release detailed.
After Paige's arrest, FBI agents executed a federal search warrant on his Fernandina Beach home and found at least one photo depicting child sexual abuse on his cellphone and the email account used to communicate with the agent.
Paige faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years, with up to life, in federal prison with a chance to spend the rest of his life under supervised release, according to the DOJ.