LINCOLN — A truck driver was sentenced in Nebraska this week to 29 years in prison after he met a teenager through social media and transported the minor across state lines to engage in sexual activity.
Nebraska U.S. Attorney Susan Lehr announced the sentencing of David Mark Platt, 58, formerly of Washington state.
According to federal investigators, Platt in the spring of 2022 met a 15-year-old through a website called Quora, where the minor was posting about wanting to run away from home.
Platt made a plan to pick up the minor from California and travel across the country together in his semi-truck, according to the investigators. Platt knew the teen’s age, investigators said. On May 12, 2022, he picked up the minor. Shortly afterward the minor was reported missing by family.
On May 15, Platt’s semi was pulled over by law enforcement officers near Lexington, Nebraska. During the stop, Platt admitted touching the minor in a sexual manner, said the news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The minor was taken to a child advocacy center and disclosed that Platt had sexually assaulted the minor each day of the trip.
Investigators said search warrant results from the social media platform revealed Platt’s expectation that the minor would have sexual intercourse with him and “other various things he expected of the minor victim.”
“The search warrant results additionally showed Platt’s preference for preteen to teenage girls and his pattern in attempting to find a child to travel with him for sex and his preference for BDSM sexual relationships,” according to the media release.
Platt was on the sex offender registry at the time of the crime, the release said.
U.S. District Judge John Gerrard sentenced Platt for one count of transporting a minor to engage in illegal sexual. After his prison term, he is to have a lifetime of supervised release. He also was ordered to pay $29,000 in restitution.