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73-year-old man is convicted of trying to solicit sex from a minor

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - A 73 year-old man, whose online nickname was "seniorloverman," was convicted on Wednesday of using a telephone and the Internet to try to coerce and entice a minor to engage in sexual activity. This conviction was announced by U. S. Attorney José Angel Moreno, Southern District of Texas. The investigation was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the FBI and Corpus Christi Police Department (CCPD.

George Ivar Musick, 73, of Harker Heights, Texas, was found guilty by a jury and the verdict was accepted by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Hayden Head on June 9. Musick faces a mandatory minimum sentence of not less than 10 years incarceration and up to a lifetime of supervised release. He has been in federal custody without bond since his arrest in March. Sentencing is set for Aug. 26.

During the two-day trial, witness testimony detailed how Musick began chatting via the Internet while using the AOL (America Online) screen name "seniorloverman," in an online chat room dedicated to adults who are interested in engaging in sexual activities with minors. While in this chat room, Musick unknowingly encountered an undercover CCPD detective posing as the 41-year-old mother of two daughters, ages 12 and 13. Musick's online chats and emails with the undercover detective began Feb. 9 and continued through Feb. 26. Musick described in explicit detail his desire to engage in sexual acts with the 13-year-old daughter.

Musick also expressed his willingness to travel to Corpus Christi to engage in these sexual acts with the child. Jurors also heard that Musick had engaged in similar chats with the undercover detective's 13-year-old child persona. During numerous chats with the 13-year-old, Musick described the sexual acts he intended to perform on the child, and expressed to the girl the need for their activities to remain a secret from everyone else.

On Feb. 26, Musick traveled from Harker Heights, Texas, near Waco, to Corpus Christi, Texas, with the intention of engaging in sexual activity with the 13-year-old child. Instead, he was met by CCPD and arrested.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lance Duke, Southern District of Texas, is prosecuting the case. This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders, and child sex traffickers. Since Operation Predator was launched in July 2003, ICE agents have arrested more than 12,800 individuals.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.