A 21-year-old Orlando man is going to federal prison for enticement of a Central Florida minor, thinking he was communicating with a 14-year-old boy on social media.
Ethan Lipper of Orlando has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge Berger to 19 years and 7 months in federal prison for attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity. The court also ordered Lipper to forfeit the cellular phone used to commit the offense.
According to court documents, on January 16, 2023, a detective with the Oviedo Police Department was posing in an undercover capacity (UC) as a 14-year-old male on a social media application. Lipper joined a group called “Orlando Teens” where he began communicating with the undercover detective, who he believed was a 14-year-old boy.
Lipper sent pictures of himself and later provided his cell phone number in an effort to entice and sexually assault the child. Lipper sent the UC six videos, at least two of which contained child sexual abuse imagery.
On February 1, 2023, Lipper traveled to an address in Oviedo, Florida to meet with and sexually assault the child. He was taken into custody when he arrived and his cellular phone was seized and searched. During a forensic review of his cellular phone, over 100 images and videos of child sexual abuse imagery were located.
During conversations on social media, Lipper asked for sexually explicit images of the minors, some of which were provided to him. To date, the FBI has located and interviewed five of these children. The search for the remaining potential victims is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to contact the FBI.
This Central Florida case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Oviedo Police Department and the Orlando Police Department and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Shannon Laurie and Special Assistant United States Attorney Rachel Lyons. Lipper pleaded guilty on June 7, 2023.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
