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BY KEITH EPPS
George T. Houde Jr. wasn't planning to come to Virginia when he was arrested last year.
Now it appears that he may never leave.
A Stafford County jury last week recommended that Houde, 58, serve 86 years in prison for trying to solicit a teenage girl over the Internet.
Area court sources could not recall a longer sentence in a child molestation case in which no child was actually touched.
According to the evidence presented during Houde's two-day trial, Houde was living in Lorain, Ohio in May 2007 when he began having Internet chats with Stafford Detective Darryl Wells.
Wells was pretending to be a 14-year-old Stafford girl and sent pictures to Houde of a girl Wells was claiming to be.
Wells estimated that he had about 20 chats with Houde over a three- to four-month period. In many of those, Houde let the "girl" watch him masturbate via the Internet.
The jury witnessed some of those sessions, complete with audio.
Houde was convicted of multiple charges, including distributing child pornography, attempting to take indecent liberties with a child and using electronic means to solicit a child.
Houde, who had no prior criminal record, testified that he believed he was chatting with a grown woman. He claimed that he knew Wells wasn't a child by some of the things that he said.
Houde said he was recuperating from cancer surgery and used the Internet to pass the time.
He will be formally sentenced on Oct. 27. A judge could reduce his sentence at that time.
Keith Epps: 540/374-5404
Email: kepps@freelancestar.com
