BENSALEM TOWNSHIP, PA — A New Jersey man is in custody on charges for trying to lure a 13-year-old girl into having sex with him, police said.
Steven Patras, 65, Hainesport, N.J., was charged Wednesday with Attempted Sexual Abuse of Children, Unlawful Contact with a Minor, and related offenses. He was arraigned by District Justice Michael Gallagher and remanded to the Bucks County Correctional Facility on 10 percent of $2 million bail.
On Wednesday, April 30, Patras began a conversation on a social media app with what he believed to be a 13-year-old girl, police said.
The chat conversations went quickly in a sexual/romantic direction, asking her things like her prior sexual experiences, bra size, and if she had pubic hair. He then described in graphic detail various sexual acts that he wanted to perform on the child when they met in person, police said.
The conversations continued through June, at which point he sent the 13-year-old pictures and also asked her to send him explicit pictures of herself nude, police said.
He told her that he was buying lingerie for her and asked for her measurements/size. Steven Patras told the juvenile that he was going to drive to her home in Bensalem on June 12 for a sexual encounter with her.
Patras had to cancel that meeting, and no new meeting date was set. No child was in danger during this investigation.
Before Patras could meet the juvenile in Bensalem, he was apprehended on June 30 by investigators from the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office in New Jersey for similar offenses.
During his arrest, his cellular device was seized, and the two months of messages with the Bensalem child were discovered on that device, police said.
Patras was sent to prison in New Jersey, and shortly after, Bensalem Police obtained an arrest warrant and lodged it as a detainer, which held him in jail until his extradition to Pennsylvania could be arranged. On July 22, deputies from the Bucks County Sheriff’s Department transported Steven Patras to the Bensalem Township Police Department.