Air Force Capt. Paul Sikkema, who taught ethics at the Air Force Academy, pleaded guilty Tuesday to exchanging sexual messages with someone he thought was a minor girl.

Sikkema, who was first charged in April while he was an instructor at the service academy, was under the impression he was talking to a 14-year-old girl in an online chat room when he first started sharing explicit messages and tried to meet the purported child.

In actuality, he was corresponding with an investigator from the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children unit, according to a news release from the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

ACSO Internet Crimes Against Children investigators subsequently arrested him on charges of internet luring of a child in April.

Sikkema, 29, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of sexual exploitation of a child, meaning he will register as a sex offender along with 10 years of Sex Offender Intensive Supervised Probation.

Furthermore, he could face up to 90 days behind bars at his sentencing, which is slated for Dec. 13.

“No person is above the law, including a commissioned Air Force officer who teaches — wait for it — ethics … to future officers. This conduct is shameful for the perpetrator and embarrassing for our phenomenal Air Force Academy,” 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler said in a statement Tuesday.

“Predators are always looking for young, vulnerable victims,” Brauchler added. “Our ability to identify and quickly stop them is directly related to the funding we have for our Internet Crimes Against Children team. We are proud to work with them and prosecute those who target our children.”

Sikkema is not listed as a faculty member on the Air Force Academy’s website anymore. The Air Force Academy told the Denver Post that Sikkema was ousted from his position when he was first charged. Next steps will be decided after the criminal case wraps up, the Denver Post reports.

According to a biography available in April on the service academy’s website, Sikkema graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2012.

He then earned a master’s degree in philosophy from Georgia State University in 2014 before returning to the Air Force Academy in 2017 to teach the philosophy department’s ethics course.

The U.S. Air Force Academy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Air Force Times.

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