FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — A convicted sex offender has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after sexually molesting a 13-year-old while he was on probation, according to the Fulton County District Attorney’s office.
Joshua Harris, 38, had only been out of prison for less than a year when he contacted the teen through a internet messaging app. Harris had been convicted of aggravated child molestation in 2005 in Walton County and lured that teen victim through a messaging app as well.
Prosecutors said the GBI became aware of Harris’ contact with the second victim from a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The chat between Harris and the teen boy began in June 2016 when the victim said he was 13 years old and gay, according to a release. Harris enticed the teen into exchanging explicit photographs and the child gave Harris his address and phone number.
In June 2016, prosecutors said Harris messaged the child to let him know he was outside his home, after the two agreed to meet up for sex. The boy’s grandfather returned home and Harris got scared off and drove away, but returned a few days later early in the morning, picked up the child and drove him to the end of a street to have sex.
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Police interviewed the teen and searched Harris’ home in July 2016. There, Harris admitted that he had targeted his victims using two different online messaging apps. When a special agent asked Harris if he had ever had sexual contact with a child, he nodded and said, “I made a mistake,” according to police.
Harris was convicted of aggravated child molestation, electronically furnishing obscene material to minors, criminal attempt to commit child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes and sexual battery in Fulton County Superior Court. He has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.