News
Va. man gets 19 years for taking Pittsburgh teen as sex slave
Published: Sep 30, 2003 - 01:11 PM
PITTSBURGH (AP) - A man who called himself a "master for teen slave girls" on a Web site and took a teenage runaway from the Pittsburgh area to his Virginia home for bondage sex last year was sentenced to 19 years, seven months in federal prison on Friday.
A defense attorney failed to sway U.S. District Judge William Standish by arguing that Scott William Tyree deserved a lesser sentence because, according to Tyree, the girl - then 13 - first raised the bondage fantasies when they chatted on the Internet in December 2001.
A defense attorney failed to sway U.S. District Judge William Standish by arguing that Scott William Tyree deserved a lesser sentence because, according to Tyree, the girl - then 13 - first raised the bondage fantasies when they chatted on the Internet in December 2001.
The girl wrote in the chat room "it is my fantasy to have these things happen to me," defense attorney Damien Schorr argued. "What wrong was she unable to detect and prevent?"
Tyree, 41, of Herndon, Va., pleaded guilty in March to two counts, that he took the girl across state lines for illegal sex and that he sexually exploited a minor. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Standish could have sentenced him to more than 24 years in prison, but Schorr argued that the minimum sentence Tyree received was still too severe.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Kaufman dismissed Schorr's arguments that the girl consented to be Tyree's slave, and said Tyree took advantage of the girl no matter what she said on the Internet.
"He was (on the Internet) looking for juveniles who might be vulnerable," Kaufman said. "This girl was 13 years old - she can't consent to anything."
Tyree apologized to the girl and asked Standish to make sure he can receive sex-related mental health counseling in prison, to which the judge agreed.
"It is my deepest desire to understand what I did and why I did it," Tyree said.
Tyree will spend three years on probation after prison, during which time his computer use will be monitored and he will be unable to possess pornography of any kind.
Tyree is divorced and has a daughter who was 12 when he assaulted the Pittsburgh-area girl.
Tyree chatted online with the girl, who told him she wanted to run away because she was unhappy at home, prosecutors said. Computer logs of their chats show the girl told Tyree that her father "beat the hell out of her" because the Pittsburgh Steelers lost a football game on Dec. 30, 2001, Schorr told Standish.
The girl and her parents were in court Friday, but she and her mother declined comment. Asked about the case and the allegations about the girl's home life, her father said only, "I think we have great people working for the justice system, let's put it that way."
Hours after Tyree's daughter left his house for a holiday visit and flew back to her mother in California, he drove to Pennsylvania on New Year's Day 2002 and picked up the girl, who left her house with $200 in Christmas money and without even a winter coat.
The girl's parents pleaded for her safe return and distributed pictures of the girl - an aspiring model. The FBI tracked her down when a Florida man told authorities Tyree had sent him a picture of a teenage sex slave who looked like the missing girl.
Investigators traced a Yahoo! Internet account to Tyree early Jan. 4, 2002, and raided his home, finding the girl still restrained. Tyree, then a computer programmer, was arrested a short time later.
Tyree's basement included a number of items connected to sadomasochism, including whips, restraints, pulleys, clamps and paddles, prompting one prosecutor to call it "a torture chamber." Tyree told FBI agents that he planned to dominate the girl "in a slave capacity for an indefinite period of time."
Tyree, 41, of Herndon, Va., pleaded guilty in March to two counts, that he took the girl across state lines for illegal sex and that he sexually exploited a minor. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Standish could have sentenced him to more than 24 years in prison, but Schorr argued that the minimum sentence Tyree received was still too severe.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Kaufman dismissed Schorr's arguments that the girl consented to be Tyree's slave, and said Tyree took advantage of the girl no matter what she said on the Internet.
"He was (on the Internet) looking for juveniles who might be vulnerable," Kaufman said. "This girl was 13 years old - she can't consent to anything."
Tyree apologized to the girl and asked Standish to make sure he can receive sex-related mental health counseling in prison, to which the judge agreed.
"It is my deepest desire to understand what I did and why I did it," Tyree said.
Tyree will spend three years on probation after prison, during which time his computer use will be monitored and he will be unable to possess pornography of any kind.
Tyree is divorced and has a daughter who was 12 when he assaulted the Pittsburgh-area girl.
Tyree chatted online with the girl, who told him she wanted to run away because she was unhappy at home, prosecutors said. Computer logs of their chats show the girl told Tyree that her father "beat the hell out of her" because the Pittsburgh Steelers lost a football game on Dec. 30, 2001, Schorr told Standish.
The girl and her parents were in court Friday, but she and her mother declined comment. Asked about the case and the allegations about the girl's home life, her father said only, "I think we have great people working for the justice system, let's put it that way."
Hours after Tyree's daughter left his house for a holiday visit and flew back to her mother in California, he drove to Pennsylvania on New Year's Day 2002 and picked up the girl, who left her house with $200 in Christmas money and without even a winter coat.
The girl's parents pleaded for her safe return and distributed pictures of the girl - an aspiring model. The FBI tracked her down when a Florida man told authorities Tyree had sent him a picture of a teenage sex slave who looked like the missing girl.
Investigators traced a Yahoo! Internet account to Tyree early Jan. 4, 2002, and raided his home, finding the girl still restrained. Tyree, then a computer programmer, was arrested a short time later.
Tyree's basement included a number of items connected to sadomasochism, including whips, restraints, pulleys, clamps and paddles, prompting one prosecutor to call it "a torture chamber." Tyree told FBI agents that he planned to dominate the girl "in a slave capacity for an indefinite period of time."
