Sex offender who posed as schoolboy gets 70 years’ jail

A SEX offender who posed as a 12-year-old boy to enrol in Arizona schools in the US will go to prison for more than 70 years.

He pleaded guilty to seven criminal charges — two stemming from the charade he pulled for two years.

Authorities didn’t find any victims of sexual abuse at the schools 30-year-old Neil Havens Rodreick II attended. But when Rodreick’s ruse was discovered in January 2007, they found an extensive collection of child pornography at his home.

Rodreick had originally faced 28 counts, but pleaded guilty to only a quarter of them in Yavapai County Superior Court in northern Arizona, according to a plea agreement document.

Rodreick pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor stemming from the pornography, as well as one count each of failure to register as a sex offender, fraud and assault.

The felony fraud and misdemeanour assault charges are the only ones that stem from Rodreick’s involvement at schools. Authorities say he enrolled in school under fraudulent pretences, and that he grabbed a girl’s buttocks at a charter school in Prescott Valley with the intent to injure, insult or provoke.

Authorities said when the girl believed Rodreick to be a boy, she shrugged off his behaviour as immature. But when police told her his true age, the girl became upset and started to cry.

Yavapai county attorney, Sheila Polk, said that according to the terms of the plea deal, Rodreick must serve no less than 70 years in prison and will not be eligible for release until his sentence is up.

She declined to comment further.

Rodreick attended charter schools in Surprise, Payson and Prescott Valley starting in 2005, authorities said.

They say he shaved and wore pancake make-up to help him appear younger, convincing teachers, pupils and administrators that he was a young boy named Casey.

He was caught after spending a day in the seventh grade at a Chino Valley school where school officials became suspicious about his paperwork.

Rodreick was arrested with Brian J Nellis, 36, also an unregistered sex offender and who was posing as Rodreick’s cousin, and two older men posing as the men’s uncle and grandfather.