Man Accused Of Using Social Media App To Prey On 15-Year-Old Mustang Girl

A 37-year-old Georgia man is accused of preying on a 15-year-old Mustang girl.

Mustang police are crediting good police work for catching Edward Sprague. Chief Chuck Foley said Sprague was in town for some training with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) when police caught him with the underage girl during an early morning patrol on Monday.

“As a parent that raised two adult daughters and is now raising two young granddaughters, it's scary to me,” said Foley.

Mustang Sgt. John Gibson was on patrol in the Cedar Ridge neighborhood when he saw a car parked on a municipal lot at 3 a.m. When he investigated, Gibson reported finding Sprague and the 15-year-old girl inside the car. According to the police report, the girl later admitted to having sex with Sprague. She said she met him online on a social media app called Whisper.

Whisper lets users be anonymous and reveals how close other users are to you. News 9 found one post that said, “Cuddle?” from someone less than 15 miles away. Users can chat with users by clicking on their status posts.

“It opens up this world where there are predators out there, like Mr. Sprague,” explained Foley.

Police took the smart phones in as evidence. They want parents to be more aware of what children are doing online.

“We are vigilant in watching over what goes on in the community, but at the same time, parents have to be just as vigilant in watching their children and monitoring what they're doing through electronic devices and social media,” Foley told News 9.

Police said the Monday morning incident was actually the third sexual encounter between Sprague and the girl, which resulted in additional charges against Sprague. Foley said the girls' parents had no idea.

“They had no idea, they had no idea that she had left the house. They had no idea that she had met this gentleman before. It was a surprise to them,” he added.

Foley said Sprague was booked on complaints of rape by instrumentation, forcible sodomy and lewd acts with a child.