“It’s just a lot of talk for most of these guys, but this guy actually brought (the girl) to the scene to go ahead with the next step of enacting it. If we hadn’t gotten involved and someone bad had gotten in touch with him, something bad would have happened to that little girl.”
These were the words of St. Louis County Detective Mike Slaughter after the arrest of 32-year-old Anthony Brinkman of Cuba, Missouri. Brinkman had posted an ad on Craigslist soliciting someone to help rape his 11-year-old daughter.
A fellow reader was obviously disturbed by the post and clicked on the “report abuse” option available. This triggered a tip to the Missouri Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. As Slaughter stated, often these types of obscene posts online are just sick posturing, but sadly in this case it appears that Brinkman had every intention of following through with his horrible plan.
An undercover officer posed as a 27-year-old woman and got in contact with Brinkman. He informed this officer that he wanted her to be his girlfriend in addition to participating with him in sexually assaulting his daughter with sex toys. He also asked if she could help find a boyfriend for the child.
Further indicting himself, Brinkman sent the undercover officer photos of his daughter as well as posting them online. Brinkman agreed to meet with the officer at an area Cracker Barrel restaurant and stated that if he liked her, he would bring her back to his home to assault his child.
When Brinkman arrived at the restaurant with the girl, Slaughter handcuffed him and he was arrested and charged with one count of attempted statutory sodomy. His bail was set at $100,000.
Slaughter told stltoday:
“Isn’t your first thought, ‘Am I going to get caught?’ and ‘Are people just going to sit by and say this is OK?’ But sometimes the Internet gives you a false sense of security. From the time he posted that ad to the time we arrested him was less than 48 hours.”
Currently investigators do not believe that the girl has been sexually assaulted but they intend on talking further with the child. She was initially taken back to police headquarters by female officers and then picked up by relatives.
Brinkman admitted to the set up saying he was sorry and that he was stupid but Slaughter stated, “you don’t let it go that far if you don’t have intentions.”
Horrible circumstance but it’s at least encouraging news if, in fact, the girl has not suffered abuse previously at the hands of her father. This story also reminds us to go ahead and do what a fellow Craigslist reader did and flag a post like the one Brinkman made, even if it seems likely the person is just trolling for attention.
