Fed Charges Added To Child 'Sex Date' Case At Southington Motel

SOUTHINGTON, CT — Federal charges have been added to the case of a 60-year-old Bristol man accused of trying to set up a sex date with a fictitious young girl arranged by the FBI at a Southington motel, a leading prosecutor said Thursday.

Robert Sellers is accused of trying to "buy the services" of a 12-year-old girl at the Motel 6, located at 625 Queen St. in Southington, according to a local arrest report and a federal warrant.

He was already charged in Connecticut with criminal attempt at commercial sex abuse of minor, criminal attempt at second-degree sexual assault and criminal attempt at risk of injury to a minor, records show.

John Durham, United States attorney for the District of Connecticut, and David Sundberg, special agent in charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said that Robert Sellers had also been charged via a federal criminal complaint with child exploitation offenses at the federal level.

Sellers appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert A. Richardson Thursday via videoconference. He has been detained since his arrest on Feb. 4 for the state charges.

According to court documents, law enforcement officials launched an investigation into Sellers' activities in late 2020 after receiving information that he was sharing videos of "child sex abuse" on a incest-themed website.

In November 2020, an undercover FBI agent began interacting with Sellers on the social media application Kik, according to case records. During the chat sessions, Sellers made statements that he had sexually abused children, and that he had "trafficked" a child to "engage in commercial sex acts," according to case records.

Case records depict Sellers saying he had recently traveled out of state to have sex with another 12-year-old girl, Durham said.

The undercover investigator told Sellers that he had a 12-year-old daughter and, after Sellers introduced the idea that the girl could be "trafficked" for sex, he offered suggestions to the undercover investigator about how it could be accomplished, Durham said.

Sellers then arranged to have sex with Doe at the Southington motel in exchange for $200, case records show.

Durham said that, in January, Sellers sent the undercover investigator videos of child sex abuse that Sellers maintained on a file sharing website.

Sellers was arrested by Southington police and FBI agents shortly after he paid the undercover investigator the $200, local and federal authorities said.

The complaint charges Sellers with one count of attempted commercial sex trafficking of a minor, which carries a mandatory minimum prison term of 15 years and a maximum term of life, and one count of distribution of child pornography, which carries a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of five years and a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years, Durham said.