VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — An Orlando man who was arrested last year after a 13-year-old girl was dramatically rescued from him will spend decades in prison for dozens of child sex crimes.
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Now 24-year-old Tyler Thompson was sentenced Thursday afternoon to 40 years in Florida state prison and an additional 45 years of sex offender probation.
Thompson’s charges included 27 counts of possession of child pornography as well as sexual battery on a child older than 12 but younger than 18, and traveling to meet a minor.
Thompson was first arrested back in February of 2021 when Volusia County deputies went looking for the victim who was reported missing after she didn’t go home after school and failed to show up to a basketball game she was supposed to be playing in.
During a hearing today in Volusia County, Tyler Thompson was sentenced to 40 years in Florida State Prison for 30 felony child sex crimes.
— State Attorney, Florida's 7th Circuit (@SAO7FL) August 5, 2022
The charges include Sexual Battery By A Person 18 Years Or Older On A Person 12 Or Older But Younger Than 18 and Traveling To Meet A Minor. pic.twitter.com/TKnpKHvPkc
Deputies learned from a friend of the missing girl that she planned to go to a hotel to meet a man from Orlando named Tyler who she had met on Snapchat.
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Deputies took that information and started randomly checking motels until they found one with a guest from Orlando checked in under the name Tyler Thompson.
As soon as the deputies knocked on the hotel room door, they say the victim came running out to them.
Thompson was immediately arrested. At the time, the sheriff’s office said additional charges were likely.
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“The sentence was a fitting end to an ugly and disturbing crime.” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said in a statement. “The defendant is a sexual predator who will have 40 years to reflect upon the fruits of his perverse sexual proclivities.”
Thompson will also be designated as a sexual predator.
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