NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A Queens sex offender who sent a woman child pornography and tried to convince an 11-year-old boy to engage in "sexual acts" with him has been sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison, prosecutors say.
Richard Palmer, 40, of Maspeth, received a 262-month sentence in Brooklyn federal court on Thursday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said in a press release.
"Today, the defendant, a serial predator and registered sex offender, received a well-deserved, lengthy term of imprisonment for his efforts to convince a young child to engage in sexual acts by texting him thousands of obscene messages and photographs," Acting U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis said in a statement.
"Protecting vulnerable, underage children from sexual exploitation will always be a high priority of this office," she added.
Palmer, who had to register as a sex offender after he was convicted of trying to promote a sexual performance by a child in 2010, sent unsolicited child pornography to a woman via email in September 2019, prosecutors said.
After the woman reported him to the FBI, law enforcement officials searched his home and learned he had sent thousands of text messages to an 11-year-old boy trying to convince him to "engage in sexual acts," according to prosecutors.
Some of the text messages included "explicit and obscene photographs," the attorney's office said.
Palmer's sentence includes five years of supervised release, prosecutors said.
