Self-described "sexology" student gets 21 years in prison
CENTENNIAL, Colo. - A Colorado man will spend 21 years in prison after he allegedly told a 13-year-old girl that he was a "sexology" student who needed to have sex with a virgin for research, reports CBS Denver.
Benjamin Clinton Stribling started talking to the child on Facebook in the summer of 2013 and offered her money to have sex with him, according to prosecutors.
The Arapahoe County District Attorney said that Stribling, 33, of Elbert, Colo., continued to contact the child with the same request for sex. The child repeatedly told him to leave her alone and that she was underage before blocking him from Facebook.
When Stribling continued to try to contact her, the victim's family notified law enforcement.
On July 1, 2013, an Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office investigator pretended to be the child and contacted Stribling. After several conversations a meeting was arranged.
Stribling allegedly said he would pick up the victim and take her to Colorado Springs where he would engage in sexual activity and videotape it.
On Aug. 2, 2013, deputies arrested Stribling as he arrived at the location where he expected to meet the child. Among the items he brought with him were two video cameras, a stethoscope, fake permission slips from his "professor," girls' underwear, condoms, sex toys and fake rose petals, according to police.
In May, 2015 Stribling pleaded guilty to two counts of child sexual exploitation.
Investigators discovered that the defendant was on parole for a similar offense and that he was a registered sex offender. In that case, which was resolved in Feb. 2013, Stribling pleaded guilty to Internet luring of a child and harassment.
He was sentenced in that case to five years' probation in the sex offender intensive supervision program and ordered to register as a sex offender.