A man in Canyon Country was charged this week with sex crimes against a 15-year-old girl he met through a social media while pretending to be a girl, prosecutors said.
Michael Anthony Byrne, 23, is accused of meeting the girl through an app that allows anonymous social media interactions, according to a statement from the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office.
Byrne allegedly pretended to be a girl, then introduced himself as a "friend" of hers. The alleged crimes took place between Aug. 1 and Aug. 16, prosecutors said.
He faces two counts of oral copulation of a person under 16 and one count each of meeting a minor for lewd purposes, sexual penetration by a foreign object and unlawful sexual intercourse.
Byrne has pleaded not guilty.
If convicted, Byrne faces seven years in state prison. Bail is set at $175,000, and he is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 5.
