DA: Man Offered 5-Year Old Girl to Pedophile
Originally published by The Associated Press, June 25, 2002
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — A Westchester man was indicted Tuesday on charges that he used the Internet to offer a 5-year-old girl to a pedophile and to induce a teen-ager into an online sexual performance, the district attorney said.
Ronald Fink, 40, of Tuckahoe, was arraigned in Westchester County Court on 38 charges, including sexual abuse and use of a child in a sexual performance, that could put him in prison for as long as 44 years if he is convicted. He was released on $25,000 bail.
"This is not just the use of the Internet to find victims and arrange meetings," said District Attorney Jeanine Pirro. "This is the use of the Internet to connect another pedophile with an underage child and to actually do a live screening of child pornography."
A call to Fink's lawyer, Bruce Menken, was not immediately returned.
Pirro said the indictment alleges that Fink arranged with a man from Dix Hills to come to Westchester and abuse a 5-year-old girl. To protect the child's identity, the district attorney would not specify if the victim was Fink's own daughter, describing her only as "available" to him.
"The brokering of children among pedophiles is bad enough, but to actually bring one pedophile to have sex with an underage child who is available to the broker is beyond understanding," the district attorney said.
The name of the man from Dix Hills was not made public because he was accused in Suffolk County of abusing his own 4-year-old daughter and offering her for trade on the Internet. He pleaded guilty to several charges and was sentenced to 18 years in prison, said Bob Clifford, spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney.
Fink was also indicted for alleged sexual encounters with a 15-year-old boy, both in person and online. He allegedly induced the teen into mutual sexual conduct while they watched each other using Internet video cameras, then later had sex with him in a parking lot.
"This is the type of pattern that should cause us to reflect on the dangers of the Internet," Pirro said. "Real-time cameras can be used by pedophiles and unwitting children to engage in child pornography that is then forever memorialized on the Internet."
