Potential predators go south in Kentucky

During our investigation here in Bowling Green, Kentucky, men drive for miles -- sometimes from other states like Tennessee and Indiana -- to meet a young girl home alone willing to have sex.

Frag: This should be wannastaynfit.

Our next visitor drove more than an hour from Nashville, Tenn., to keep a date for sex with a girl posing as a 13-year-old.

Decoy: Hey, come around the side. This front door doesn't work.
Watwood: OK.

While online using the screen name singlemalestaynfit2000, 41-year-old Richard Watwood not only poses naked on his webcam, he also masturbates for the decoy then encourages her to touch herself. Two days later he shows up at our house.

Decoy: I was just watching some TV.
Watwood: Oh, OK.
Decoy: We got these new chairs to sit down in. It's the greatest thing ever.
Watwood: OK.

He thinks the girl's a virgin and home alone for the weekend. By the looks of his chat log, he's here to take her virginity.

Watwood: Hey, can I use your restroom?
Decoy: Um, well, we're having some plumbing issues right now because it's the new house so it's not really hooked up yet. So can you hold it for a little maybe? Until later?
Watwood: I've got to pee real bad. I been having to go since Nashville.
Chris Hansen: Before you do that I’ve got a couple questions for you. What's going on?
Watwood: Ah, not much.
Chris Hansen: No, no, I need to ask you some questions first. Keep your hands out of your pockets, please. Please, have a seat.
Watwood: I don't want to have a seat.
Chris Hansen: You don't want to have-- you don't want to tell me what you're up to--

He insists he has to go to the bathroom -- and then takes off.

Hansen: Well, there's something you need to know before you leave. And that's I’m Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC.

He's taken away in an unmarked car, driven to the local police station and booked. Officers search his car for evidence.

Female cop: It's Viagra, two unmarked types, several condoms.

Later Watwood is brought in for questioning.

Katherine Reed: You understand why you're here?
Richard Watwood: Unh-unh (negative).
Katherine Reed: OK. You were picked up tonight for traveling to see a minor.

He's read his rights and asked to sign a waiver.

Richard Watwood: I don't want to waive my rights.

Like all the other men you've met so far, he is arraigned before a judge where his bail is set at $50,000 cash.

Judge: I'll enter a plea of not guilty on your behalf this morning. OK.
Watwood: Yes, sir.

Meet 34-year old James Fowler. He's been chatting online with a decoy posing as a 13-year-old, calling himself youwantcomeandgetme2005, he wastes no time getting to the point.

Youwantcomeandgetme2005 (10/17/07 9:03:23 pm): I like to pleasure people and be pleasured
Youwantcomeandgetme2005 (10/17/07 9:03:35 pm): I just dont chat I meet
Youwantcomeandgetme2005 (10/17/07 10:06:51 pm): I want to know if meet you you will let me pleasure
Decoy (10/17/07 10:07:05 pm): lolz sounds fun

Then he turns on his webcam and shows her his private parts. The next day he's walking into our living room.

Decoy: Look at this, we got these sweet new chairs, sit down. It's so cool. It has, like, a massager in it. If you push those buttons.
James Fowler: Yeah.

Decoy: I got him to sit in a chair, and I was just sitting on the edge of my chair.

Decoy: That's pretty cool, right?
James Fowler: That's wild.

Decoy: And then, out of nowhere, he just stood up and started heading towards me.

Decoy: Do you want me to get you something to drink?

Decoy: He was definitely headed towards me for something.

Chris Hansen: Hey-- why don't you have a seat right over there.
James Fowler: Oh, no.
Chris Hansen: What's happened? Go ahead, sit down. What's going' on? 
James Fowler: I thought this is never going to happen.
Chris Hansen: You thought this was never going to happen. And what do you think this is?
James Fowler: It's not-- it's not good.
Chris Hansen: Now, what was your plan here tonight?
James Fowler: Have-- have a-- have a fun-- a time.
Chris Hansen: With a girl who told you she was how old?
James Fowler: I think it was-- 13.
Chris Hansen: And how old are you?
James Fowler: Thirty-four.

He says he drove an hour and forty-two minutes to get here.

Chris Hansen: And during that drive at all did you think, "Man, this is a bad idea?"
James Fowler: Yeah, that's exactly what I thought.
James Fowler: Should have just turned around once I thought about it.

Chris Hansen: Have you met other people before on the internet?
James Fowler: Sure, consent-- older-- I mean, everybody's old, you know, that I-- I’ve never done this before.
Chris Hansen: What made you decide to do this for the first time tonight?
James Fowler: You know, I-- wow, that crossed my mind about-- I seen your show, and I’m, like I shouldn't--
Chris Hansen: You've seen which show?
James Fowler: This one.
Chris Hansen: And what was your reaction when you-- when you've seen the show before?
James Fowler: It was bad. Was just bad.
Chris Hansen: What the people were doing was bad?
James Fowler: Yeah.
Chris Hansen: Now you say here that you like to pleasure people and be pleasured.
James Fowler: Yeah.
Chris Hansen: Now, you know this is a 13 year old girl.
James Fowler: Yeah.
Chris Hansen: You talk about how having sex for the first time may be painful for the girl … and then you sent these pictures.
James Fowler: Yeah.
Chris Hansen: You ever been in trouble before? (pause) You have been?
James Fowler: Yeah.
Chris Hansen: What was the actual criminal charge against you?
James Fowler: Having sex with a minor.
Chris Hansen: Having sex with a minor. OK.

He's a convicted sex offender. In 1995 he pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse. He says it was a big misunderstanding, that the girl showed him a fake ID saying she was 18.

Chris Hansen: Well, you've seen the show before. So, you know that this is about the time where I need to tell you who I am. I'm Chris Hansen, and I’m with Dateline NBC.
James Fowler: Yeah.
Chris Hansen: And this is ‘To Catch a Predator.’
James Fowler: Yeah.

He's in no hurry -- he knows what's waiting for him outside.

Cops: Sheriff's office, come on out. Come on. Put your hands up. Palms! Palms! All the way down, all the way down, come on.

Later, at the police station, he's brought into the interrogation room, read his rights and starts answering questions.

James Fowler: I’ve been having pleasure with adults. Pretty much-- good 20 years, you know. There's nothing to that to me, but this was something different.
Katherine Reed: Different how?
James Fowler: Another experience.
Katherine Reed: And what were your intentions when you got here?
James Fowler: I was intentions to be pleasurable and pleasure her, but-- I-- I might not have done the actual-- penetration, I just-- I just wanted to see how it went is all, you know?
Katherine Reed: OK, now you're going to have to define "pleasurable" for me.
James Fowler: Fellatio. Having the lady have pleasure below and likewise, I guess.

He says he lives with his girlfriend and her five-year-old son.

Katherine Reed: Does she know you chat?
James Fowler: Yes. But she didn't know about this. I told her it was a couple.
Katherine Reed: A couple?
James Fowler: Couple, two people, a man and a woman.
Katherine Reed: That you were coming to see?
James Fowler: Yeah.
Katherine Reed: For what?
James Fowler: I have pleasure with couples.
Katherine Reed: So she knows that you travel to have relationships?

He tells the agent about his prior conviction for sex with a minor and says he got probation. But later he was arrested for not reporting to his probation officer.

Fowler: So I went back and done 37 days in the pen in Delaware.

He also admits to dating a teenager. He says she was 18 but he doesn't remember her name.

Katherine Reed: You lived with this girl and you didn't know her name?
James Fowler: I've had a lot of girlfriends.
Katherine Reed: Well, I’m sure you have, Travis, but I want to know this one's name.
James Fowler: I don't know.
James Fowler: I can see her face, but I just-- I can't picture her name.
Katherine Reed: How long did she live with you?
James Fowler: Couple months.

Like all the other men arrested here in Kentucky, he pleads not guilty.

MORE FROM 'TO CATCH A PREDATOR'

'To Catch a Predator' Section Front

Meet the men from 'To Catch a Predator' Potential predators go south in Kentucky Meet the men featured in Kentucky 'Predator' Pricey home is rich place for potential predators No day at the beach for N.J. potential predators Chris Hansen: Reflections on 'To Catch a Predator' Book excerpt: Enemies in your home 'To Catch a Predator' Section Front   Add 'To Catch a Predator' headlines to your news reader: