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A Vinita man is heading to federal prison for 10 years after using a free mobile app popular with teens to attempt to sexually entice someone he thought was a 14-year-old boy.

This week, US District Judge Clair Eagan sentenced John William Thomas Flechs, age 37, concluding a nearly two year investigation into conversations Flechs initiated with an undercover officer posing as a minor. Using Kik messages, Flechs sent photographs on three occasions and described sexually-explicit encounters he would like to have with the boy. After suggesting the boy meet him at a skate park, Flechs was taken into custody by officers who attended the meeting.

The initial investigation was conducted by the Rogers County Sheriff’s office and then turned over for prosecution to the US Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice’s Child Exploitation & Obscenity Section as part of the Project Safe Childhood program that allows marshals at local, state & federal levels to locate, apprehend, and prosecute adult individuals who are seeking child and teen sexual partners.

Photo released by Rogers County Sheriff's Office.