Police: Bristol man caught by undercover FBI agent trying to pay for sex with 12-year-old girl

A Bristol man who arranged to have sex with a 12-year-old girl with her father was instead arrested at a Southington motel, where he found out he had actually been corresponding with an undercover FBI agent.

Robert Sellers, 60, was charged by Southington police with three offenses, including criminal attempted commercial sex abuse of a minor, but the federal investigation is ongoing, officials said Wednesday.

The investigation began in October when FBI agents linked Sellers to an incest website using his social media accounts and he exchanged more than 500 messages with an undercover agent through encrypted messaging apps Kik and Wickr, Southington Lt. Keith Egan said.

Sellers believed he was communicating with the father of a 12-year-old girl seeking advice on how to prostitute his daughter and suggested things like fees to charge for sex acts with the girl, Egan said.

Sellers eventually told the supposed father he wanted to rent a motel room and pay $200 to have sex with the child, not knowing he was actually communicating with a federal investigator and that the girl was fictitious, Egan continued.

They arranged to meet Feb. 4 at a motel in Southington, where the FBI and local officers staked out the property to capture Sellers and confirmed he had in fact rented a room, Egan said.

When Sellers arrived and paid the $200 to an undercover agent, officers surrounded his vehicle and arrested him in the motel parking lot, Egan said.

Sellers remained in custody Wednesday in lieu of $150,000 bond, according to court records. He is scheduled to appear Feb. 19 for arraignment in Superior Court in New Britain.

Zach Murdock can be reached at zmurdock@courant.com.

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