L.A. man gets 10 years for illicit sex with boys in Thailand
A Los Angeles man was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison for traveling to Thailand to engage in illicit sexual activity with minors, officials said.
Steven Erik Prowler, 58, had served a year in prison in Thailand for molesting teenage boys when he was deported and forced to face charges in the United States in May 2006.
He pleaded guilty in February to federal charges of traveling abroad with the intent to have sex with a minor and to engaging in illicit sexual conduct with minors in another country, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
In pleading guilty, Prowler acknowledged paying a 15-year-old boy about $6 to engage in sexual acts in April 2005, prosecutors said. Prowler, sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert M. Takasugi, had faced up to 60 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Prowler was arrested in May 2005 after the Royal Thai Police, acting on an anonymous tip, set up surveillance and saw two boys leave his apartment in Bangkok.
He was prosecuted under the PROTECT (Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today) Act, adopted in 2003 to facilitate tracking sexual predators across international borders.
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