Read below for more details on the case.
UPDATE: TUESDAY 3:15 P.M.
by Cliff Judy (ARKANSAS CITY, Kan.)
Arkansas City Police say four more teenage girls have stepped forward saying they were contacted online by a 25-year-old man accused of child solicitation. The detective investigating 25-year-old Thomas Pennycuff for Ark City PD says four girls contacted the department on Tuesday saying Pennycuff talked to them through their MySpace accounts.
Thomas Pennycuff, 25, is charged with one count of Electronic Solicitation of a Child for allegedly setting up a meeting in Wichita with a person he thought was a 13-year-old girl. The girl was actually a law enforcement investigator. The current charge is based in Sedgwick County. Pennycuff bonded out of the Sedgwick County Jail on Friday.
After Pennycuff's arrest, Arkansas City Police investigated Pennycuff's computer and interviewed him. Through the interview and information found on his computer, investigators say he contacted 80 Arkansas City girls. They also say he sexually solicited and met with 13 of those girls.
Ark City Police Chief Sean Wallace says police currently expect to present 13 to 16 counts of Electronic Solicitation of a Child and a count of Aggravated Indecent Liberties of a Child. The Cowley County Attorney will decide if charges are actually filed in that jurisdiction.
Investigators appealed to parents of young teenage girls on Monday saying they wanted to make sure Pennycuff hadn't contacted any other potential victims.
Court documents filed in Sedgwick County show Pennycuff's wife and a roommate filed a protection from abuse order against him in 2007 saying he'd threatened and pushed them both. Pennycuff immediately filed a PFA of his own against each of the women. A judge eventually told the parties to stay away from each other for a year.
25-year-old Thomas Pennycuff has been charged with one count of Electronic Solicitation of a Child.
Read the Entire Warrant
He made his first appearance Monday in a Sedgwick County Courtroom. Court documents were filed in the case on November 5.
Read the Complaint Against Pennycuff
Stay with KWCH for continuing coverage of this story.
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By Rebecca Gannon (ARKANSAS CITY, Kan.)
Police arrest a man they say tried to have sex with a teenage girl he met online.
Arkansas City Police say Thomas Lee Pennycuff, 25, used the Internet to solicit a person he thought was a 13 year old girl.
It was actually an undercover detective, and police arrested Pennycuff.
It's no secret teens spend a lot of time on the Internet. What may be secret -- their life online.
Maybe not from Ariel Downing's 139 MySpace friends, but from her parents. "They never ask for it or anything," the 16 year old said. "They trust me enough."
Lindsey Reed sat just two chairs away at the library. The 14 year old doesn't share her online profile with her parents.
"They know that I have one, but they don't know about my password or anything," she said. She said she didn't want them knowing "because then my parents would get on, and would be like, oh, well, Lindsey's talking to random guys."
Police say if parents knew that information, it could prevent a lot of trouble.
The kind of trouble Arkansas City Police say Thomas Lee Pennycuff caused.
Ark City police say the 25 year old man contacted at least 13 girls over the Internet -- many of them in Ark City. He even physically met with a few.
"As a parent, I would simply tell my child they're not going to use the Internet if I didn't have their password," explained Sgt. Chester Pinkston of the Exploited and Missing Children's Unit with Sedgwick County.
