Trabuco Man Held in Internet Teen-Sex Case

A Trabuco Canyon man suspected of using the Internet to commit sex crimes has been arrested, authorities said Friday.

David Allan Fay, 41, is accused of sending sexually explicit photos to girls he met in teen chat rooms, then encouraging them to commit lewd acts during phone conversations.

Laurie Hungerford, an assistant Orange County district attorney, said that although Fay did not have physical contact with the girls, prosecutors will charge him under a statute making it a felony for someone to instruct children to fondle themselves.

Fay used his Internet access at work to contact the girls, said Michael Van Winkle, a spokesman for the state Department of Justice, which worked with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department on a five-month investigation.

Fay would befriend the girls, gain their trust, then get their addresses and other personal information, Van Winkle said. “This is the same path pedophiles have used for years,” he said.

After making contact with the girls, investigators say, Fay apparently persuaded them to call him at his company’s toll-free number. Fay left his job last year after some of the girls’ parents complained to his employer, which authorities declined to identify, about e-mail messages and photos he sent. In August, the employer called investigators, who searched his office computer and found files on more than 20 girls in six states, Van Winkle said.

Investigators from the Department of Justice arrested Fay on Thursday at his home. Fay, who faces charges on 14 felony counts, is being held in the Orange County Jail in Santa Ana on $500,000 bail. Arraignment is set for Tuesday at the West Justice Center in Westminster.

Van Winkle said that the number of Internet sex crimes has risen dramatically in the past two or three years.