A Beaver County man has been arrested by New Castle police and agents from the state attorney general's Child Predator Unit who said he traveled to Lawrence County to meet and have sex with two underage girls.

Thomas W. Pieri Sr., 52, of 3508 Third Ave., Koppel, was charged Friday with six counts of unlawful contact with a minor, second-degree felonies each punishable by 10 years in prison and $25,000 in fines.

Attorney General Tom Corbett yesterday said that on Oct. 16, Mr. Pieri used an Internet chat room to proposition a 15-year-old girl in Ohio. The "girl" was an undercover detective from the Fairborn (Ohio) Police Department, who contacted agents with the Pittsburgh office of the attorney general's Child Predator Unit. Mr. Pieri also is accused of sending a sexually explicit Webcam video.

He later traveled to Lawrence County, believing the 15-year-old girl would be there visiting her 13-year-old cousin in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Pieri also is charged with unlawful contact with a minor and criminal use of a computer. He is being held in the Lawrence County Jail on $50,000 bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday in Lawrence County Central Court.

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