Beck

HARRISBURG - Agents from the Attorney General's Child Predator Unit have arrested a Pike County man accused of using Internet chat rooms to sexually proposition what he believed were 13 and 14-year old girls from the Harrisburg area.  The "girls" were actually undercover agents from the Child Predator Unit who were using the online profiles of children.

The suspect is identified as Andrew Beck, 49, 102 Avenue G, Matamoras.

Attorney General Tom Corbett said that Beck, using the screen name "lovindad59," allegedly used Internet chat rooms to approach two different undercover agents from the Child Predator Unit, one using the online profile of a 13-year old girl and the other using the online profile of a 14-year old girl.

According to the criminal complaint, Beck sent nude webcam videos of himself to the girls and instructed them to masturbate - commenting, "love to explore your body," and "I could teach you other things too." Beck is also accused of asking the girls to meet him for sex and describing in graphic detail the sex acts he wished to engage in.

Beck is charged with four counts of unlawful contact with a minor and one count of criminal use of a computer, all third-degree felonies which are each punishable by up to seven years in prison and $15,000 fines.

Beck was preliminarily arraigned on Monday, before Harrisburg Magisterial District Judge Joseph S. Solomon, who set bail at $50,000. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 23, at 9:30 a.m., before Magisterial District Judge Solomon.

Beck will be prosecuted in Dauphin County by Deputy Attorney General Michael A. Sprow of the Attorney General's Child Predator Unit.

Corbett noted that Beck was arrested on July 14th by agents from the Attorney General's Office when he appeared in court in Harrisburg on charges related to a similar arrest by the Dauphin County District Attorney's office that occurred in March 2008.  In the Dauphin County case, Beck is charged with traveling from Pike County to the Harrisburg area after allegedly arranging to have sex with what he believed were two girls, age 10 and 13. That case is being prosecuted separately, by the Dauphin County District Attorney's Office.

Beck is the 150th Internet Predator to be arrested in Pennsylvania by the Attorney General's Child Predator Unit, which was created in 2005 to investigate and apprehend online predators. 

Corbett urged anyone with information about suspected Internet predators to call the Attorney General's Child Predator Hotline at 1-800-385-1044, or file an online complaint using the Attorney General's website - www.attorneygeneral.gov (Click on the "Report an Internet Predator" link on the front page of the website).