To Catch a Predator - Lorne Armstrong

To Catch a Predator - Lorne Armstrong 

Lorne began chatting with a girl he believed to be 13 years old named “Kayla”. In the beginning, he was warning her about the dangers of chatting with strangers on the internet, but as the days and chat went on, Lorne began to write more romantic messages to her, calling her his “precious little princess” and his “little babygirl”, and showing fiery jealousy whenever she talked to boys in her school.

Lorne finally ended up showing naked cam pics of himself and talking about the sexual things he wanted to do with her. He even proposed to marry her, calling her “Mrs. Kayla Marie Armstrong”. Before arriving at the sting house,

Lorne had contacted the decoy, hoping to score a night of sex with her, also mentioning he was coming over with a “present” (a cheap $5 bracelet) and a box of condoms. The online chat lasted over a month and spanned 407 pages (the end chatlog was as thick as a phonebook). Lorne finally arrived at the sting house on his 37th birthday, he was very calm and happy when he met the decoy.

Casey even felt relaxed while she was talking to him, since he was so friendly and inviting. After taking a seat on a butt warmer chair, he told Casey about what wanting a kiss from her to kick off the night. Then, Chris Hansen dramatically entered the room and confronted Lorne.

Hansen smugly took a seat on the opposite chair and spent the next ten minutes grilling him. He then read the chatlog and quoted many lines Lorne had sent the decoy ("Is Ms. Vagina thinking about Mr. Penis? What is she thinking?") Lorne visibly became more stressed and depressed as the conversation went on. He would try to blame his behavior on a catfishing relationship he had previous with a woman he knew as "Amanda James".

Eventually, Hansen revealed that he was on the To Catch a Predator TV show, Lorne then let out a cry of defeat ("OH CAWD!") and was arrested shortly after he left the stinghouse. During his police interview, despite knowing he had incriminating evidence in his truck and on his computer, he gave the police consent to seize both.

Only after being showed his nude cam shots did he request a lawyer, but it was too late. Police were interviewing Travis Fowler in a nearby room and after his interview, the detective in charge of the Armstrong interview comes in and proclaims “He’s toast” to the other detective. Lorne would end up being charged with interstate travel with the intent of sex with a minor, attempted sexual contact with a minor, and attempt to produce child pornography (police recovered a camera from his truck). On the advice of his attorney, he took a plea deal. He was sentenced to seven years, of which he served five and was given lifetime probation and RSO status.

Afterwards, he returned to his home state of Maine. Attempted YouTuber In 2017,

Lorne, believing himself to be a celebrity due to the attention he received from his appearance on Dateline, tried to cash in on his fame (or infamy) by starting a YouTube channel where he would sing, do workouts, cook vegan dishes and try to sell paraphernalia from before and during his prison stay. These videos would be massively downvoted and many of the comments would be things he said in his 407 page chatlog though he wouldn’t recognize they were his words thrown back at him. He tried to sell a shirt (for $40) of a still of him from TCaP with the phrase, “Don’t yell. I’m sensitive!”, which is a rephrase of his infamous “Well! Yell at me why doncha?!”.

 The legality of selling such a shirt was suspect at best considering he was using an image from the show which would not only be a copyright issue, but a possible violation of the “Son of Sam Law” which prohibits criminals from making money from their crimes. That being said, he only sold one shirt, and he never shipped it.