A Wesley Chapel man has pled guilty to multiple counts of child abuse and engaging in sexual activity with minors for meeting with teenagers across Central Florida through a social networking app over a two-year span and having sex with them in his car, apartment, and their residences.
Clayton Everett Colborn, 31, has pled guilty to two counts of enticement and coercion of a minor to engage in sexual activity, five counts of using minors to produce child sexual abuse images and videos, and one count of possessing child sexual abuse material. Colborn faces a minimum, mandatory penalty of 15 years and up to life in federal prison for the offenses.
According to court records, between 2018 and 2020, Colborn used a social networking application to find minors for the purpose of engaging in sex acts. Colborn, who was between 27 and 28 years old at the time of the offenses, created a fictitious profile in which he posed as a 16-year-old boy named “Jason Rich.”
The app is designed to help people make friendships within distinct age groups based on a user’s profile. It includes a separate section for people between the ages of 13 and 17, and another for those over the age of 18.
Using the fake profile, Colborn told victims he was 16 years old and enticed victims between the ages of 13 and 17 years old to meet with him at various locations around Central Florida, including his car, his apartment, and residences of the victims’.
During one instance, Ocoee Police Department officers caught Colborn with his pants down in a public park in the middle of the night with a child victim. Colborn attempted to flee and was apprehended in the park. Police obtained DNA evidence that showed that Colborn had engaged in sexual activity with the child victim.
To date, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has identified and interviewed seven child victims who all resided in Central Florida and were victimized by Colborn similarly.
During their investigation, FBI officials searched Colborn’s iCloud account and found approximately 30 videos and 81 images that he produced of himself engaging in sexual acts with girls between the ages of 13 and 17.
Anyone with information regarding Clayton Everett Colborn, or those he may have victimized, call 1-800-225-5324. Colborn may have been known to his victims as “Jason Rich,” “Jason,” “Clay,” or “Clayay.”