Police arrested another suspect Monday afternoon as part of an undercover Internet sex sting that has led to the arrests of six other suspects.
Raymond E. Wortham, 38, of Archer, was arrested just before 5:30 p.m. Monday and charged with two counts of obscene communication and one count of using a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony.
Operation Tailspin was a collaborative sexual predator operation between the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office and the Alachua and Gainesville police departments that ended Monday.
Starting on July 18, detectives, posing as 12- to 14-year-old children, spent five days talking to the sexual predators, luring them to designated locations and arresting them.
According to the ASO arrest report, Wortham believed he was talking with a 14-year-old girl and her boyfriend after responding to an online advertisement.
Wortham talked to the girl about having sex over text messages and phone calls. He later found out the girl was alone and asked her to walk out and meet him.
When Wortham arrived at the location, there was no girl. Instead, police arrested Wortham at the scene.
Wortham told police he did talk to the girl about having sex.
He also said he was curious but had no intentions to meet her.
Wortham later said that if he had met with the girl, he would not have forced her to have sex against her will, according to the report.
According to the Florida Department of Corrections, Wortham is a registered sexual predator and has served two prison sentences for a 1999 incident where he was arrested and charged with attempted sexual battery of a victim younger than 12 years old.
He served a nearly three-year term, which started in 1999, and a four-and-a-half-year term, which started in 2006.
Wortham was released from Century Correctional Institution, located in Century, Fla., on Nov. 19, 2010.
He is currently in Alachua County Jail with a bond set at $100,000.
Contact Chris Alcantara at calcantara@alligator.org.
