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Christopher Anthony Paul (Chesterfield Township Police Department).
Though he expressed regret and said he thought pedophiles are “disgusting,” a Michigan man is seen on police body camera footage admitting to trying to engage in sexual contact with someone he believed was a teenager.
It was actually a trap by several people who told police they were YouTubers.
When cops in Chesterfield Township asked him, defendant Christopher Anthony Paul, 37, said it was his first time trying to engage in sexual contact with a minor.
“To be honest, I don’t normally go for the younger guys,” he said. “You guys will probably disagree based off what happened, but I am honestly not a pedophile. I think those guys are disgusting. I don’t know what made me come here tonight. I just had a rough week at work.”
Police have said that said the same group had separately contacted Paul and another man, Dylan Michael Bishop, 23, while pretending to be a teenage boy, 15 going on 16. They provided officers with screenshots of the illicit conversations.
“I turn 16 in a month, but I act a lot older for my age,” the writer allegedly wrote Paul. A police officer read this message outside a Walmart on May 19, 2024. During the exchange, the officer asked Paul what he expected would happen with the minor if they met.
“To be honest, nothing,” Paul said on footage. “I was just going to meet with him and see if the vibe was right, and then go from there.”
“And then,” said a sarcastic police officer quoting the messages that were allegedly exchanged between Paul and the minor, “eat hot a–, and get on top and suck his d—.”
“Well, no,” said Paul.
The night before, when police arrested Bishop on May 18, one of the YouTubers said his brother, then 23, agreed to let them use older pictures as bait.
“What were you here to do tonight?” an officer asked Bishop, handcuffed in the back of a police vehicle.
Bishop admitted meeting the boy on the gay dating app Grindr.
“He told me he was 15, going on 16,” he said.
Bishop admitted he would have engaged in one specific sexual act, had the meetup gone as he allegedly planned.
“If anything would have happened it would have been no further than oral,” Bishop said, insisting he would not have gone further if offered.
Both Paul and Bishop are each charged with a count of accosting children for immoral purposes and using a computer to commit a crime. They have pleaded not guilty. Bishop is scheduled for a hearing to take place Jan. 27. Paul has his on Jan. 29.
