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"I want to kiss you all over. And I want to lick your c--t. I love you, baby."

- Gentile turning the smoothness up to eleven with the decoy.

Michael Gentile is a predator caught in the Fairfield, Connecticut sting. He is among one of the oldest predators caught in the series, best known for his unsettling voice from calling the decoy, as well as the inappropriate nude pictures that he sent.

Background[]

Michael Gentile, a 64-year-old limousine driver from Brewster, New York, who had earned a civic award for his contributions to his community,[1][2] used the online screen name "Luv2Bnaked," to contact a Tetrad Core decoy posing as a 13-year-old named "Brittany." Over a period exceeding a month, Gentile expressed his love for the girl, claimed her as his girlfriend, said he could be her sex education teacher and referred to her as his "little sex kitten." He sent explicit photos of himself and child pornography to the decoy, shared links to pornographic websites, asked to take nude pictures of her, and disturbingly suggested she practice sex acts with a banana before he arrived.

Arrest[]

Gentile had told his wife that he would be going out to help a friend with something and drove over 35 miles from his home to the sting house in Fairfield, Connecticut. Upon arriving at the agreed-upon location, instead of encountering an actual child, he was met by a 19-year-old decoy known as Nervous Nellie/Nelly. After entering the sting house through a side door, the decoy requested him to close a window, and he complied. While the decoy headed towards the kitchen, Gentile began walking back to the side door, mentioning he would be outside. This prompted Chris Hansen to reveal himself, asking Gentile to come over. Upon hearing Hansen's voice, Gentile hastily exited the house, closing the door behind him. Hansen quickly pointed out to the waiting law enforcement officers that Gentile had tried to escape. The cops ran out of the house and placed Gentile in custody.

Processing and police interview[]

At the police station, Gentile faced inquiries about his marital status, confessing to being married but then claiming "soon to be divorced." During the booking process, the police disclosed that his bail would be set at $500,000. Gentile contacted his wife over the phone, admitting to being in custody for attempting to meet an underage individual. Initially skeptical, Gentile handed the phone to an officer to clarify the situation to his wife. Under police questioning about his intentions at the house, Gentile asserted he was there to meet a "friend" for a movie night. When asked about the online conversations, he insisted they covered topics ranging from sex to school. However, Gentile denied being in school himself but claimed the woman lived with her parents and was in school. When the investigator questioned the plausibility of a 30-year-old living and studying at home with parents, Gentile's claim was swiftly dismissed. Gentile tried to claim to not know the decoy's real age, admitting that she said she was younger, but attributed it as "roleplay." He claimed the decoy mentioned being either 34 or 36. Frustrated, the investigators confronted Gentile, asserting they knew he was aware of the girl's true age. Despite Gentile's attempt to convince them that it was a grown woman pretending to be a child, the investigators emphasized the severity of his actions, calling him "every parent's worst nightmare." They warned him that his story would not hold up, especially with his wife and daughter. A subsequent search of Gentile revealed a hotel key card located about an hour away from the sting house. Obtaining a search warrant for the hotel, the police discovered Gentile's wallet, a computer, a tablet, a camera, and a knife. Chief Gary MacNamara referred that the items they found were for a "kiddie porn manufacturing site."

Aftermath[]

After his arrest, Gentile was charged with one felony count of criminal attempted second-degree sexual assault, one felony count of attempted risk of injury to a minor, and one felony count of enticing a minor in an obscene performance.[3] Gentile was eventually bailed out, but in March 2016, a warrant was issued for his arrest after police secured a search warrant for his phone and found 24 sexually explicit photos of children on it. Gentile turned himself in and was charged with second-degree possession of child pornography. He was held on $50,000 bail.[4][5] Gentile would end up be found guilty on all four felony charges he was facing, and on March 31, 2017,[6] Superior Court Judge Robert Devlin sentenced Gentile to ten years in prison suspended after serving four and a half years. He was also ordered to be put on probation for 10 years and registered as a sex offender for 10 years.[7][8] Gentile was later released from prison on January 4, 2021,[6] and will remain on probation and the sex offender registry until 2031.[9]

References[]

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