CALAIS – A 38-year-old former Eastport man pleaded guilty Tuesday to a charge that he advertised in an Internet chat room for somebody to abduct and rape his 12-year-old daughter.

According to an affidavit filed with District Court, Harry N. Munson, now of Lubec and Bangor, wanted the kidnapper to share electronic pictures of the sexual assault on his daughter so he could “either watch, listen or later view photographs of the … event.”

Munson, who was charged with solicitation, faces up to 10 years in prison, four years’ probation and a $20,000 fine.

On Sept. 10, 1999, a Louisiana woman notified the Washington County Sheriff’s Department that she had seen an ad on an adult chat room from a “Harry” indicating that he was looking for someone to kidnap and rape his daughter. The ad listed an Eastport telephone number, the affidavit said.

The telephone was listed to a Betty Hastings, who lived on Key Street. When Maine State Police investigated, they learned that Munson and Ann Marie Hastings lived at that address.

Chat rooms are Internet sites that allow multiple users to have conversations. The participants usually use nicknames or symbols to hide their identities.

Six months after the first report, a man who lives in Maine notified police that while he was in a chat room, someone who called himself “wild-2-us” asked the man to kidnap and rape his daughter. The man provided an address in Rockland. “This person wanted the [Maine] man to electronically mail him pictures of the rape,” the affidavit said.

State police detectives visited the Rockland address on June 26, 2000, and spoke with the girl’s stepfather. According to the affidavit, the stepfather said the child was visiting her biological father in Eastport.

State police then removed the child from Munson’s home in Eastport and returned her to her mother in Rockland.

On June 29, detectives went to Munson’s home, and Munson acknowledged posting the chat room conversations listed to “wild-2-us,” but he said he had been “trying to be funny.”

Hastings told police she had no knowledge of the chat room conversation. Munson signed a consent-to-search form for the computer in the house. The computer was turned over to a computer crimes task force.

On July 3, Munson called Detective Glenn Lang in Augusta and asked about his daughter’s well-being. During the conversation, Munson told Lang that he had posted the abduction information on the Internet four times. He also told the detective that he was not trying to be funny, but said he fully intended to have his daughter abducted and raped. “He said he simply did not have the nerve to go through with it each time,” the affidavit stated.

On Tuesday, Munson appeared with his attorney, John Churchill of Calais, and entered a guilty plea. He waived indictment and his right to a trial. While Assistant District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh detailed the scope of Munson’s offense, Munson sat with his head in his hands.

Cavanaugh recommended to Judge John Romei that Munson undergo a forensic psychiatric evaluation.

He said that he and the defense attorney had agreed to an open plea.

After the court session, Churchill said he had little else to say. “The case is still pending. Mr. Munson has not yet been sentenced. And I certainly am not going to say anything that might prejudice the final results of this case,” he said.

Churchill said his client had serious psychological problems that he had sought treatment for since his arrest.

Cavanaugh said he anticipates that the psychological evaluation could be completed within the next six weeks. Once the evaluation is available, he said, the state would request a plea.

“The open plea is not really a plea agreement at all. The court will be free to impose any sentence legally available for a Class B conviction,” he said. “The only limit the state has imposed on itself is an agreement that we will only recommend that any initial portion would be served here in the county jail. If the forensic evaluation tells us that is inappropriate, and that this is an individual who should receive a state prison sentence, the court is free to do that,” he said.

Cavanaugh said Munson has no criminal record. He said the 12-year-old girl’s mother and stepfather plan to attend Munson’s sentencing.

The assistant district attorney praised the people who reported to police the information Munson posted in the chat room.

“Anybody who sees this type of communication on the Internet ought to take it seriously. This is different than some of the adult language on the Internet between consenting adults, or the soft erotica that is communicated in some of these chat rooms. This is somebody asking somebody to do something to a third person that is clearly illegal and morally wrong,” he said. “I would hope this would get reported.