CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – A convicted sex offender thought he was talking a parent into letting him have sex with their 12-year-old daughter -- but he was really communicating with an investigator, and the attempt to have sex with a minor landed him back in jail, deputies said.
Philip Edward Haines, 39, of Palm Coast is facing charges of traveling to meet a child for sex, soliciting a parent for sex with a minor, and using a cell phone to arrange a sexual encounter with a minor.
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The 39-year-old was arrested Saturday night when Clay County detectives said he traveled to Orange Park to have sex with what he thought was a 12-year-old girl.
According to the arrest report, The Clay County Sheriff’s Office was conducting an online undercover operation to go after child predators. The report states that on Friday, Haines used his cell phone to engage in a texting conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a parent of a 12-year-old girl. The conversation was on a social media app called “Meet Me.”
According to the report, Haines sent selfie pictures of himself to the undercover detective before the conversation shifted from the Meet Me App to regular cellular texting.
A page-long transcript of the text messages is too graphic to print in this new article -- but News4Jax can confirm messages posted by Haines were explicit as to what he wanted to do to the child. The report states that Haines even went as far as to text nude pictures of himself which included his face.
The undercover detective said Haines made an arraignment to travel from Palm Coast to Orange Park to have sex with the girl the following day. The pre-determined meet-up location was a Gate gas station on Blanding Blvd.
The arrest report states Haines was arrested when he arrived and as he was being taken into custody, he said, “God d****t, I don’t want to go back to prison for this s**t.”
A criminal background check revealed that Haines is a registered sex offender from Flagler County who was convicted in Volusia County back in 2015 on a charge of traveling to meet a child for sex.