(Credit: Bucks County DA)
A Kentucky man has been charged by Bucks County authorities with sex trafficking a 13-year-old Bucks County girl, coercing the victim through fear to engage in sexual intercourse with two adult males in October, one of which is a Buckingham Township resident.
Zachary Lee McCauley, 29, of Louisville, was charged with one count each of trafficking in individuals, sexual exploitation of children, corruption of minors and criminal use of a communication facility, and three counts each of unlawful contact with a minor and sexual abuse of children, according to the Bucks County District Attorney.
Zachary Lee McCauley, 29, of Louisville, KY (Credit: Bucks County DA)McCauley was also charged with solicitation to commit statutory sexual assault, solicitation to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, solicitation to commit patronizing victim of sexual servitude, solicitation to commit aggravated indecent assault, and solicitation to commit sexual abuse of children.
He is currently in custody in Kentucky and awaiting extradition, police said.
The investigation conducted by Bucks County Detectives found that McCauley allegedly groomed and coerced the victim into having sexual encounters with two adult males, ages 67 and 42, three times during the month of October 2024, police said.
The two males who allegedly engaged in the statutory sexual assault of the victim were identified as Jon Thomas Van Ingen, 67, of Buckingham Township, and Randy Francis Quinn, 42, of Coopersburg.
Jon Thomas Van Ingen, 67, of Buckingham Township (Credit: Bucks County DA)
Randy Quinn, 42, of Coopersburg (Credit: Bucks County DA)At least one of the encounters was video recorded through a Snapchat video call, according to authorities. The investigation found that McCauley arranged these encounters by communicating with multiple adult males through an online dating site, police said.
Van Ingen was charged with one count of statutory sexual assault and Quinn was charged with two counts of statutory sexual assault and one count each of photographing or filming a child sex act and dissemination of photos or film of child sex acts.
Van Ingen and Quinn were arraigned on Monday by Magisterial District Judge Maggie Snow and released on $150,000 unsecured bail.
“I praise the mother in this case because her instincts were correct,” District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said. “And I praise the victim in this case, she is only 13 years of age, and she is so strong and she is not to be blamed for what occurred. These cases cannot succeed without the amazing team of county detectives and the other detectives throughout Bucks County who make up our Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. They use the resources and their expertise to battle these crimes every single day.”
In February, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office began an investigation into the sex trafficking of the 13-year-old victim.
Police allege the victim was on Snapchat when an individual on the site added her as a friend. The individual identified himself as “Jake,” and claimed to be 17 years old and was aware that the victim was 13, police said.
“Jake” was later allegedly identified as McCauley.
After a few weeks of communication, McCauley solicited the victim into taking sexually explicit photos and videos, which he had her send to him through Snapchat, authorities allege. She initially refused, but McCauley persisted, and she eventually sent him images.
In total, she said she sent him more than 25 sexually explicit videos and images, investigators said.
During their conversations, McCauley made comments about hurting the victim’s mother, making the victim fearful that he would carry out the threat, police said.
At some point, McCauley directed the victim to create an account on the dating site Grindr and give him the login credentials. When the victim told McCauley she could not create an account because of her age, McCauley allegedly told her to lie and claim to be 18 years old.
After the profile was created, McCauley added images of the victim in various pieces of lingerie, police said. He also created a fake school ID that listed the victim by a different name and with a date of birth as 18 years old, according to investigators.
McCauley would then access the Grindr account and communicate with other users, soliciting dates with the victim, police allege. When he couldn’t access the account, he would direct the victim to send him screenshots of the conversations she had with the other users, so he could tell her what to say to them investigators said.
McCauley allegedly arranged numerous encounters with men and the victim, which ultimately led to her meeting with three of them.
Two of the men engaged in statutory sexual intercourse with the victim, but the third encounter ended when the male became suspicious of the victim’s age, police allege.
All of the encounters happened in October in Bucks County. In one of the encounters, Quinn allegedly was on a Snapchat video call with McCauley and the sexual assault was recorded.
The victim communicated with McCauley posing as “Jake” in multiple ways, including various Snapchat accounts, Instagram and phone calls, police said.
The victim never met McCauley in person, and only once saw his face when he inadvertently turned on his camera during a Snapchat video call, according to authorities.
The investigation was conducted by detectives with the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, as well as the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General and Saint Matthews Police Department in Kentucky.
This case is assigned for prosecution to Chief Deputy District Attorney Kristin M. McElroy.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
