Man Charged With Trying to Buy 12-Year-Old Girl For Sex

By Joseph Hosey

An Englishman looking to have sex with a girl younger than 11 but older than 7 settled for a 12-year-old when he struck up a deal on the website Craigslist, prosecutors said.

But when 35-year-old Charles Bocock went to meet and pay for the girl at a Plainfield Dunkin' Donuts Monday, the child was nowhere to be found. And instead of going home with a little girl, he was arrested by undercover detectives and hauled off to the Will County jail.

Bocock, a British citizen and permanent resident of the United States residing in Chicago, appeared in court Tuesday and was charged with indecent solicitation of a child, grooming, and traveling to meet a minor. Will County Judge Roger Rickmon set Bocock's bond at $1 million.

In the event Bocock comes up with the $100,000 he needs to secure his release, Judge Rickmon forbade him from using the Internet or having unsupervised contact with anyone younger than 18. The judge also ordered Bocock to surrender his passport if he makes bail.

"Sir, there's a slight complication," Bocock told the judge during his bond hearing. "I sent it for renewal a week ago. It's at the British embassy right now."

Rickmon told Bocock, who appeared at the hearing via a video feed from the county jail, that he needed to get his passport back from the embassy and turn it in if he wanted to get out on bond.

A woman identifying herself as Bocock's wife attended the hearing. She cried while Assistant State's Attorney Michael Casson detailed the charges filed against her husband.

Bocock allegedly responded to a Craigslist advertisement posted by a Plainfield resident trying to get money for his car payment. But in exchange for the money, Bocock wanted a girl for sex, officials said.

The Plainfield resident went to the police and an investigator pretending to be the cash-strapped Craigslist poster continued the online conversation with Bocock, officials said. The investigator reportedly offered Bocock his 12-year-old niece for the car payment money, and a rendezvous was set up for Monday afternoon at a Dunkin' Donuts on Route 59.

After Bocock was taken into custody, police searched his North Tripp Avenue home and found "numerous" images of child pornography, Casson said.

Bocock has no prior criminal convictions in the U.S., Casson said.

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