By: Layan Abu Tarboush Posted and last updated THOMAS COUNTY, GA — A new Georgia bill aims to close a decade-old gap in state law that left law enforcement without a charge for adults who travel from other states to meet minors for indecent purposes. House Bill 421 aims to stop predators from traveling across state lines to meet children they contacted online, closing a legal gap exposed by a 2015 Thomas County case. The bill would add five words to Georgia’s existing enticing a child law: “or travels from another state.” The bill has passed the Georgia House. Thomas County Sheriff Tim Watkins said the need for the legislation became clear in 2015. “In 2015, on Thanksgiving night, a father found a man that had traveled here from South Carolina in the bedroom of his 13-year-old child. We brought him. He called the sheriff’s office. Deputies responded. We brought him down to the investigations, and we were trying to come up with a charge to charge the gentleman with,” Watkins said. Watkins said the man had been talking to the 13-year-old online for weeks before traveling hours to Thomas County to meet the child. When investigators looked for an applicable charge, they found nothing i
