SEATTLE — This story was originally published on MyNorthwest.com
Federal prosecutors said a 29-year-old registered sex offender was sentenced in Seattle on Monday to 17 years in prison and a lifetime of supervision, after he abused multiple children across the state, whom he met through social media.
U.S. District Judge John H. Chun called the case heartbreaking. “The youngest victim was just 12 years old,” noted Chun. The oldest was only 16.
Convicted sex offender escapes under state supervision
Court documents showed James “Jake” Harrison Newcomer was on state supervision after serving a 30-month sentence for two counts of child rape when he cut off his ankle monitor and escaped.
Prosecutors said he posed as a teenage boy on social media platforms, including Discord and Snapchat, to contact girls. He then arranged to meet them, serve them drugs and alcohol, and sexually assault them.
“This repeat offender is every parent’s nightmare,” said U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd in a statement. “The dangerous stranger who enters your home via the internet and steals your child’s innocence.”
During the three months that Newcomer was on the lam, prosecutors said he abused girls in King, Kitsap, Snohomish, Lewis, Clark, Thurston, and Spokane counties, as well as in Woodburn, Oregon.
In August, Newcomer pleaded guilty to charges involving 10 girls. Judge Chun ordered Newcomer to be on lifetime supervision once he is released from prison.
Read more of Heather Bosch’s stories here.
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