PORTLAND, Maine — A local man Wednesday pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to two counts of sexual exploitation of children after a federal judge denied a motion that would have allowed him to argue at his trial that he believed the girl he filmed having sex with him was 19, not 15.
Paul Henry, 25, aka LT Henry, of Portland is scheduled to be sentenced in March.
His trial was set to begin Monday with jury selection.
Henry was arrested April 16 by Portland police, according to court documents.
By pleading guilty, he admitted to using his phone to film himself on Jan. 25 and 26 having sex with a 15-year-old girl in an apartment in Portland. Between Jan. 27 and 30, Henry sent the video from his phone to 10 different people, according to the prosecution version of events to which he pleaded guilty.
Portland police seized Henry’s phone and drug paraphernalia on Feb. 12 when they found him at a local motel as part of a separate investigation. Information about whether Henry is facing charges in state court were not available Friday because courts were closed for the holiday weekend.
He has been held without bail since his arrest.
U.S. District Judge Jon Levy ruled Tuesday that Henry could not argue at trial that he thought the 15-year-old was 19 because that was what she told him when she agreed to have sex with him. Levy found that the “statute does not authorize an affirmative defense for a reasonable mistake of age.”
Henry faces between 15 and 30 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. He also will be required to register as a sex offender for life.