Beach man faces charges of sex with minors

NORFOLK

A Virginia Beach man has been indicted on federal charges of having sex with underage girls, videotaping one of the acts and then trying to cover up the crimes, according to an indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court.

Shawn F. Engle, 31, who has a history of indecent exposure arrests at the Beach, faces a bond hearing Friday in U.S. District Court. He was arrested Tuesday afternoon but had already been in custody on state charges.

Engle is accused of traveling to South Carolina last year to pick up a 13-year-old girl, driving her back to his house and having sex with her, according to the indictment and an affidavit filed by the FBI.

The two met on the social networking Web site MySpace in the summer of 2008. He soon began sending text messages to her cell phone "expressing his feelings for her and his desire to be with her," the FBI affidavit says.

In August, after a feud at her father's home, she called Engle and asked him to come get her, which he did. The affidavit says he drove her back to his house in Virginia Beach and had sex with her over several days.

He then drove her to his mother's house in Gates County, N.C. In the meantime, the girl's father reported her missing and police ultimately found her at Engle's mother's home on Sept. 18.

Engle was arrested by Virginia Beach police on Oct. 24. He admitted meeting the girl on MySpace, the affidavit says.

State charges related to that incident have since been dropped in favor of the federal prosecution.

In a search of his home after his arrest, police and the FBI discovered a video camera with a 45-minute film of Engle having sex with what appeared to be another underage girl, the affidavit says.

Investigators reviewed Engle's cell phone records and discovered that he had made 150 calls or text messages to a number in the Pittsburgh area. They soon learned that he had befriended a 16-year-old girl there.

The court records say Engle went to the hometown of the girl on several occasions in the spring of 2008 and had sex with her in hotel rooms. The video, which the FBI found, was apparently made during one of those trips.

While in jail this year, Engle wrote letters to various witnesses asking them to destroy evidence in the case and asking them not to cooperate with the authorities, the indictment charges.

Before his arrest, Engle had been operating Evolution Limousine Services based in Gates County. In the past seven years, he has been arrested in Virginia Beach three times on charges of exposing himself and was convicted once.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com