ST. LOUIS — A jury has found a St. Louis man guilty Thursday of 22 sex offenses against children.
Craig Wilbert, 62, was found guilty of crimes against children including sodomy, sexual trafficking and furnishing pornographic material.
Prosecutors said on Jan. 3, 2023, police received a report of a sexual assault of a 17-year-old. The victim had recently moved into Wilbert's house in the city's Dutchtown neighborhood where a teenage boy and another woman also lived.
Warning: the next section describes some of the abuse and is disturbing.
Prosecutors said Wilbert began making sexual advances toward her by sending her porn, offering to pay the victim for sex, and threatening to kick out the girl and the other two people who lived there if the victim didn't have sex with him.
Prosecutors said after an investigation, it was revealed Wilbert was sexually abusing the boy as well, starting from when he was 12 years old. Wilbert convinced the victim to trade sexual favors for money to take the bus to school, buy a cell phone and pay the phone bill.
Wilbert was convicted of first-degree child molestation in 2010 and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Prosecutors said because of that prior conviction, Wilbert's sentence will be mandatory life in prison with the possibility of parole after a minimum amount of time set by the court, which must be set at a minimum of 15 years.
Wilbert is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 18.
