A San Pedro man who tried to lure an 11-year-old girl into sending him sexually explicit pictures was sentenced April 1 to 30 years in prison, the United States Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

Anthony Frank Scovotto, 58, contacted the girl, who he believed was 12 years old, through audio calls and text messages for two months in 2017, the statement said.

Mr. Scovotto, who claimed to be 18 years old during the communications, asked the girl to take off her clothes when they were in an online chat room and asked her to send him sexually explicit pictures of herself through text messages, according to the statement.

Authorities said that in order “to convince the victim to produce [child sexual abuse material (CSAM)], Mr. Scovotto told the girl he loved her and that they were ‘meant for each other.’”

That was the same technique Mr. Scovotto used to try to lure two other underage victims he met online the same year to send him sexually explicit pictures, the statement said.

“[Scovotto] preyed upon vulnerable pre-teen and adolescent girls by posing as a teenager or young man and pretending to love and care for them,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum. “He betrayed their trust and manipulated them for his sexual pleasure.”

Mr. Scovotto previously was convicted in Orange County Superior Court in 2001 for “attempted lewd and lascivious acts upon a child younger than 14 years old,” a felony.