BELTON — The broad-shouldered man exchanging raunchy messages with a 49-year-old Fort Hood soldier on the website “Skip the Games” was not who he was pretending to be, which was a wayward 15-year-old girl seemingly eager to have sex in exchange for $50 or $80, depending on the act.

“We run an operation in Bell County in which we portray ourselves to be teenage prostitutes,” said Capt. John Spillman, who has been with the Texas Department of Public Safety since 2009. “We post ads online and ‘johns’ reach out to us. We recognize that people are willing to pay for sex acts with juveniles, so we’re trying to prevent the sexual assault of children.”

Spillman was the first of three people to testify during a two-day sentencing hearing of an ex-Fort Hood soldier who was arrested on Aug. 6, 2021

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