US man gets over 15 yrs after failed plan to have sex with a child in Jamaica

A man from the United States was sentenced to more than 15 years in jail for child pornography on Wednesday.

According to reports, the man was charged after negotiating a plan to have sex with a child in Jamaica, which he claimed was just a fantasy.

Darren Kalmar, 58, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States, pleaded guilty to two counts of receipt of child pornography on May 13, 2022.

According to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office, for the Eastern District of North Carolina, the man was sentenced to 188 months in prison on the two counts

Court documents say that, “in 2019, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received two CyberTip reports from a social networking platform, Tagged, relative to suspected child exploitation activity. The CyberTips concerned activity in May 2019 between two users who discussed arranging for sex with minors abroad”.

Reports further indicated that one user on the platform, later identified as Kalmar, mentioned having sex with a 13-year-old Dominican girl, and asked the other person to arrange contact with a girl who was nine or 10 years old. 

“The other responded with a photo that appeared to depict a prepubescent female, and Kalmar responded, ‘perfect, I want her. They negotiated prices, settling on US$90 for nude photos and US$250 for access to the child for five days,” the US Attorney office said.

Kalmar reportedly provided a CashApp payment username that contained “kalmar”, and an email address with username, dskalmar32.

Reports suggests that at the end of the conversation, Kalmar reportedly said that he actually sent the money and that he needed the photos now.

Loop news reported that a second user stated “You get the money and run?” Kalmar was quoted as asking the individual said to be the “second user”.

The US Attorney’s Office said “the IP address for the second user was traced to a woman in Jamaica,” while Kalmar’s IP was tracked to a residence in Fayetteville.

Law enforcement officials compared Kalmar’s driver’s licence photograph to a user profile photo on his Tagged account, and found that they matched.