Marine sentenced

A Camp Lejeune Marine who pleaded guilty to trying to meet a child online for sex has been sentenced to 4½ years in prison by a military judge.

John Ryan Leone, 24, originally from Ruffin, S.C., traveled from the base to Pender County to have sex with who he thought was a 14-year-old girl he met on a social networking Web site, said Pender Count Sheriff’s Sgt. Scott Lawson.

But the “girl” Leone had spent three months grooming on the Internet was actually a detective with the Pender County Sheriff’s Department.

Leone was arrested in June by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and charged with solicitation of a child by computer to commit an unlawful sex act.

He pleaded guilty Tuesday to five counts of attempting to communicate indecent language to a child less than 16 and one count of solicit a child by computer to commit unlawful sex act.

Besides the prison sentence, Leone was reduced to E-1, must forfeiture pay and allowances and will receive a bad conduct discharge from the Corps. He will be required to register as a sex offender, authorities said.