Michigan man gets life in rape of Texas girl after he removed her braces with pliers
A Michigan man who stalked and sexually assaulted a 14-year-old Lubbock, Texas girl and later told authorities that it wasn’t wrong was sentenced on Thursday to life in federal prison, according to U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad Meacham.
Thomas John Boukamp, 22, received the sentence from U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix.
A federal jury in June convicted Boukamp on 16 counts: one count of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual conduct, one count of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, one count of enticement of a minor, two counts of receipt of child pornography, 10 counts of production and attempted production of child pornography, and one count of cyber stalking.
Boukamp met the child, identified in court with the alias Jane Doe, on the instant messaging platform Discord when she was just 13 years old, according to federal authorities.
The pair exchanged a series of messages, in which he threatened to hurt her family if she disclosed their budding “relationship,” and he later brought her to Michigan.
“This man stalked and sexually assaulted a 14-year-old, then had the gall to claim in federal court that their so-called ‘relationship’ was consensual,” Meacham said in a Thursday news release. “The child, who bravely faced her abuser in court, asserted in no uncertain terms that his advances were unwelcome. By law, 14-year-olds simply cannot consent to sexual contact with adults. We are immensely proud of this child and hope this sentence brings some solace to her and her family,”
The teen’s father testified at trial that when she ran away to Michigan, his terrified daughter brought her baby blanket with her.
Once she was in Michigan, Boukamp kept Jane Doe in his home, where he sexually assaulted her, forcibly removed her braces with pliers, strangled, and hit her.
At Thursday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors introduced into evidence a recorded jailhouse phone call in which Boukamp insisted he would not apologize for “quote unquote raping a 14-year-old.”
“I like teenage girls! They don’t like that I like that,” he said of federal agents and prosecutors. “I frankly don’t care what the morality of this current time and place says. It’s not wrong. There’s nothing wrong about it. And they’re not going to ever convince me of its wrongness. So up theirs. I hate this nation.”
When he was reminded that authorities were monitoring his jailhouse calls, he threatened, “if you’re listening to this, yeah, your family is going to die.”
At the hearing, assistant U.S. attorneys also introduced into evidence a letter Boukamp wrote to a family member noting his victim’s supposed “betrayal” and asking for help to escape prison.
“This defendant displayed reprehensible behavior, which was countered by the bravery of the victim that so courageously testified against him,” said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Matthew J. DeSarno in the Thursday news release. “The FBI and our law enforcement partners will continue to do everything in our power to seek justice for victims and their families, hold perpetrators accountable and protect others from harm.”
The girl’s father submitted a statement to the court describing the trauma his daughter continues to endure:
“Her childhood was ended too soon. He took that from her,” he said in the letter. “She struggles with her self-esteem. I don’t know if she’ll ever be able to truly love herself again… We hope that she can be okay. We hope that she can make it through this. We know that she will never be the same. We know that she will never get her innocence back.”
