Cocoa Beach man accused of traveling to Deltona for sex with 12-year-old girl

A Cocoa Beach man who twice had sex with a 12-year-old girl and returned for a third encounter instead ran into undercover Volusia sheriff's detectives who arrested him, officials said.

Volusia sheriff’s deputies, detectives and other staff intercepted Brandon Keith Donato, 29, on Saturday at 10:15 p.m. when he arrived in Deltona to meet the 12-year-old, said sheriff's spokesman Andrew Gant.

Donato was charged with two counts of lewd or lascivious battery on a child; showing obscene material to a minor; promoting the sexual performance of a child; using a computer to solicit a child; traveling to meet after using a computer to solicit a child; and unlawful use of a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony. He was being held Sunday in the Volusia County Branch Jail on $350,000 bail.

On Friday, the 12-year-old girl's family contacted the sheriff's office after discovering the child shared videos of herself having sex with an unknown man, detectives said.

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When detectives spoke to the girl, she said she met Donato on the Wink Mobile app and started communicating with him on Instagram, Gant said.

Donato told the girl he was a 17-year-old named Brandon Smith, detectives said.

Sex and sexually explicit messages

Crime analysts at the Volusia County Crime Center identified the man as Donato, investigators said.

Crime analysts also discovered that Donato's vehicle tag was caught by license plate readers in the early morning hours of Monday and Wednesday, the two occasions the girl said he traveled to meet her for sex, officials said.

A review of the child's phone also showed an ongoing series of sexually explicit messages and descriptions of what they’d done, with Donato indicating he was still interested in meeting up with her again, Gant said.

So detectives took over the chat on Saturday and arranged to have Donato meet with the child in Deltona. When Donato showed up, detectives and deputies were waiting to arrest him.

Check children's devices, sheriff says

According to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, Wink is a social networking and friendship app for kids 13 and up that has been described as “Tinder for teens.”

What is Wink: Kids are making friends through Wink, an app geared for teens and older. But is it safe?

Sheriff Mike Chitwood encouraged parents and guardians of kids with access to mobile devices and apps to closely monitor their activity.

“Today, thanks to the quick work of everyone involved in this case, there’s one less predator out there exploiting the same apps our kids use,” Chitwood said. “Unfortunately there are many more waiting for their own opportunity. Everyone should take the time and make the effort to protect our kids from predators who want to steal their childhood.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida man accused of having sex with 12-year-old Deltona girl