Crime & Safety

Child Sex Sting Nets Camden County Man 9-Year Sentence

Royce DeWeese had pleaded guilty to charges in September after being arrested in Virginia in May.

A Camden County man will spend nine years in federal prison after being sentenced in Virginia on charges related to an attempt to have sex with a minor.

Royce DeWeese, 26, of Cherry Hill, was snared in May as part of Operation Predator, a nationwide program undertaken by the Department of Homeland Security to go after sexual predators who target children, and pleaded guilty in September to a charge of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.

DeWeese spent months emailing and chatting with an undercover Homeland Security officer, according to court documents, in an attempt to set up a sexual liaison with what he believed to be a father and his 10-year-old daughter.

Find out what's happening in Gloucester Townshipwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Using an email address that made reference to pedophilia, DeWeese told the undercover agent he'd had sex with his 16-year-old niece and wanted to set up more sexual encounters with younger girls—the younger, the better, according to court records.

“I love the younger side,” DeWeese wrote in one email referenced in the evidence against him. “Young girls really are are very hot...I can't tell you how badly I want to try to find someone.”

Find out what's happening in Gloucester Townshipwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

After about two months of emails and instant messaging, which all traced back to his Cherry Hill home off Chapel Avenue, DeWeese and the undercover agent set up a meet in a parking lot in Fairfax, VA, according to court records, where law enforcement agencies arrested him just before 7 a.m. on May 14. He admitted to officers he'd driven the 164 miles to Virginia for sex with the fictional 10-year-old, according to court records.

DeWeese faced up to three decades in prison after pleading guilty; after he serves his federal prison term, he'll be subject to a lifetime of supervised release, per the sentence handed down by United States District Judge T.S. Ellis III in the Eastern District of Virginia.

The prosecution was part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat what law enforcement said is “a growing epidemic” of child sexual exploitation and abuse.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.