A 53-year-old District man has been accused of enticing young boys to engage in sex, sometimes in public restrooms.
Craig A. Byrnes was arrested last week when he thought he was going to meet a Baltimore man and his 13-year-old son so he could have sex with the teenager.
A source contacted the Metropolitan Police Department and FBI Child Exploitation Task Force about Byrnes in mid-July, according to the criminal complaint filed against him in federal court in Washington.
Through text messages and telephone conversations in late July and early August, the source told Byrnes that he had met a dad who would let Byrnes have sexual contact with his 13-year-old son.
Byrnes expressed concern that he would “get caught,” according to the complaint.
On Thursday afternoon, the source told Byrnes that the teen and his dad would come to D.C. from Baltimore that day so Byrnes could have sex with the boy.
The complaint says that Byrnes indicated that he wanted to perform oral sex on the 13-year-old and said he would need to take Viagra in order to have sex with the boy.
The source and Byrnes then made arrangements to meet in D.C. When Byrnes arrived he was arrested by members of the task force.
According to the complaint, Byrnes had told the source that he had performed oral sex on young boys in various public restrooms in the past.
The source also told authorities that Byrnes asked him to share his child pornography videos.
At the time Byrnes was arrested, the complaint said, authorities seized from him a laptop computer, two thumb drives, an external DVD drive and a manual for sex addicts.
Byrnes was charged with first-degree child sexual abuse.
Tony Miles, the federal public defender assigned to represent Byrnes, did not return a call for comment. Byrnes indicated last week he wanted to retain his own counsel, but no other attorney was listed in online court records Wednesday.
