'Damaged' man sentenced for soliciting sex with 13-year-old through chat line

Updated: August 28, 2008 - 12:19 AM

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A 55-year-old Andover man who tried to solicit sex from a 13-year-old girl he met on a telephone chat line was sentenced Wednesday to 90 days in the workhouse and three years' probation.

Thomas R. Voyt is "a very damaged individual ... and he knows it," his attorney, Brian Marsden, told Ramsey County District Judge Michael T. DeCourcy.

Voyt pleaded guilty in May to one felony count of soliciting a child for sex. According to the charges filed in March, the teenage girl told investigators that she'd met "Tommy" on the "Live Links" chat line about a month earlier and he often talked about sexually explicit acts. He told her that he was 21 and that he had a sauna, swimming pool and bar in his house.

The girl and a friend arranged to meet Voyt on March 7, but ducked into a Burger King restaurant on Maryland Avenue in St. Paul to avoid a man in a pickup truck who was following them.

Voyt's attorney told the judge Wednesday that Voyt knows he needs treatment but has not been able to afford it.

"He is willing to abide by whatever conditions the court imposes," Marsden said. "He does not want to live this lonely, wretched life he's been living."

Voyt told the judge, "First, I'd like to apologize to the victim and to the general public. I made the wrong choice. ... I'm 100 percent ready to take full responsibility."

DeCourcy stayed the execution of a 15-month sentence and ordered Voyt to complete a sex-offender treatment program, register as a predatory offender for 10 years, have no contact with minors or vulnerable adults and stay away from chat lines and Internet message boards.

PAT PHEIFER