ST. LOUIS, MO (September 26, 2024) — A jury found Craig Wilbert, 62, guilty of 22 sex offenses against children including sodomy, sexual trafficking and furnishing pornographic material.

On January 3, 2023, police received a report of a sexual assault of a 17-year-old. The victim had recently moved into Wilbert’s house in the city’s Dutchtown neighborhood where her boyfriend and his mother also lived. After she moved in, Wibert began making sexual advances toward her and sending her pornography. Wilbert offered to pay the victim for sex, and threatened to kick her, her boyfriend and his mother out of his home if the victim did not have sex with him.

Further investigation revealed that Wilbert had been sexually abusing the victim’s boyfriend starting when he was about 12 years old. Wilbert convinced the child to perform oral sex on him in exchange for money to take the bus to school, buy a cell phone and pay the phone bill.

Wilbert was convicted of first-degree child molestation in 2010 and sentenced to eight years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. Because of his prior conviction, his sentence will be mandatory life in prison with the possibility of parole after a minimum amount of time set by the court, but not less than 15 years. Wilbert is scheduled to be sentenced November 18, 2024, by 22nd Circuit Court Judge Madeline Connolly.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant Circuit Attorneys Sydney Beecher and Kerri Davis.

“It took tremendous courage for the repeatedly traumatized victims of this heinous sexual predator to come forward and testify at his trial,” said Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore. “I commend their bravery, as well as the skill and sensitivity of our prosecutorial team that put him in prison, likely for the rest of his life.”

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