Christopher Anthony Paul (Chesterfield Township Police Department).
Despite expressing remorse and stating that he finds pedophiles repulsive, a man from Michigan was captured on police body camera footage confessing to attempting to have sexual contact with an individual he believed to be an adolescent.
It was actually a trap by several people who told police they were YouTubers.
When questioned by authorities in Chesterfield Township, the accused, 37-year-old Christopher Anthony Paul, revealed that this was his first time attempting such an act with a minor.
“Honestly, I typically don’t pursue younger individuals,” he admitted. “I realize you may disagree given the circumstances, but I genuinely do not have any attraction towards minors. I have a strong aversion towards pedophiles. I cannot explain why I decided to come here tonight. It has just been a difficult week at work,” he said.
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.
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.
