Man gets five years for molesting girl

A 42-year-old Newport Beach man was sentenced to five years in prison this week for molesting a child he met on a social networking site in 2010.

Samuel Brent Robertson pleaded guilty Thursday to 24 counts of lewd or lascivious conduct with a minor, luring and meeting a child to commit lewd conduct and disobeying a court order.

In 2010, Robertson met a girl younger than 13, and he pretended to be 24 years old. In their first meeting that October, he picked the girl up from her Ladera Ranch middle school and took her to a hiking trail in Newport Beach, where they had sex.

Because of the girl’s age, she cannot consent to either traveling or having sex. In another instance, Robertson picked the girl up from her home and took her to his house in Newport Beach, where he molested her again.

The girl’s mother saw a text message on her daughter’s phone when Robertson tried to set up a rendezvous at a Ladera Ranch park, and this time police were waiting.

—Joseph Serna

Twitter: @JosephSerna