Mandan sex offender sentenced to 40 years for sex crimes

A registered sex offender from Mandan (ND) has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for crimes related to international travel with intent to engage in illicit sex acts with a minor

Sixty-year-old Maurice Robert Thill was sentenced Tuesday in Bismarck.

The U-S Attorney’s Office says in December 2019, Thill boarded a flight to Madagascar without notifying sex offender registration authorities of his intent to travel internationally, as required by federal law.

Upon his return to the U-S in January 2020, Thill was arrested on a related North Dakota state warrant for failing to update his sex offender registration.

Thill’s cell phone was seized and searched. Additional investigation determined that Thill had communicated with minors in Madagascar about sexual activity using social media accounts he had failed to register as required by law.

Authorities located multiple images involving the sexual exploitation of minors on the cell phone, including images of Thill engaging in sex acts with a minor in Madagascar… as well as communications referencing sexual activity with another minor in that country during a previous trip in 2019.

Thill was a registered sex offender based on convictions under North Dakota law for Gross Sexual Imposition in 1990, 1991, and 2004. He was also civilly committed as a Sexually Dangerous Individual between 2011 and 2017.