An Orlando elementary school teacher is among 38 males busted in a major undercover cyber sex crimes sting, Polk County deputies said Monday.
During the 10-day-long operation, undercover detectives posted fictitious ads or profiles on various websites, posing as children, or as custodians of children.
Despite the repeated warnings and media coverage of past operations, numerous men responded to the ads and then proceeded to chat online, email, text, and talk on the phone with the undercover detectives who posed as children online.
The suspects solicited for sex acts, sent pornographic pictures and live web-cam images of themselves, and asked for nude photos of the children to be sent to them. Several of the men drove to the house to follow through with the promises made online to engage in sexual activity with the juveniles.
43-year-old Matthew Chillcott, who is a 5th grade teacher at Lawton Chiles Elementary School in Orlando, and who has been chatting online with an undercover Casselberry Police detective since January 2012, was one of the 38 arrested.
Chillcott, during this operation, continued to chat with the detective, who was posing as a 14-year-old girl, and agreed to travel to the undercover location to have sex with the girl. In addition to being a teacher, he also told detectives he is a youth soccer coach.
A sex offender was also among those arrested. Investigators said, 31-year-old Wilson Silva of Brooksville, who has been registered since 2001 out of Hernando County.
Silva responded to a fictitious ad posted on Craigslist by an undercover Mount Dora Police detective posing as the stepmother of a 14-year-old girl. He offered to come to the undercover location to teach the girl how to have fun with sex.
The undercover operation began on June 1st and wrapped up yesterday and included several agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Orange County Sheriff’s Office and Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, among other agencies.
Sheriff Grady Judd will brief the media at 11:00 a.m. today and provide more details on the operation.
