Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP Dana Avery, the Rochester man on trial on charges accusing him of soliciting sex from an underage girl on the internet, listens to testimony on Wednesday's first day of trial.

NASHUA – Dana Avery, the 55-year-old Rochester man on trial for allegedly soliciting sex online from a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl, told police after his arrest the person with whom he exchanged more than 1,000 emails “said she was 14 … but this is the internet, who knows who’s who?”

Avery, of 40 Washington St., repeated numerous times during a roughly 100-minute police interview that he never knew for sure who he was exchanging emails with, and at one point told Detective Caleb Gilbert he drove to Nashua to meet the person “hoping she was 18 … or 25.”

If he arrived at the pre-arranged meeting spot in Nashua and a young girl matching the description he was given in one of their emails approached his truck, Avery told Gilbert he would have left without the girl, according to the interview.

A recording of that interview was played Wednesday morning before a jury of nine men and five women, who will ultimately determine whether Avery is guilty of using websites and social media apps to lure who he thought was a girl under age 16 for the purposes of sex.

Avery, charged with two counts of certain use of computer services prohibited, also called internet solicitation, opted for a jury trial, which opened Wednesday at Hillsborough County Superior Court-South.

Judge Jacalyn Colburn sent jurors home a bit early Wednesday, at 3:30 p.m., with instructions to return for the second day of testimony at 10 a.m. today.

Nashua police arrested Avery on July 21, 2017, shortly after he pulled into the parking lot of McDonald’s at 45 E. Hollis St., allegedly with plans to meet the person police say he believed was the 14-year-old girl.

Assistant County Attorney Nicole Thorspecken, who is prosecuting the case, played the recording of Avery’s post-arrest interview with Gilbert while Gilbert was on the stand. He was the first and only witness called Wednesday.

In her opening statement, Thorspecken told jurors Avery exchanged some 1,039 emails with Gilbert, who Avery allegedly thought was the girl who answered Avery’s online ad seeking to meet “a young woman.”

Avery, according to Thorspecken, “drove from Rochester to downtown Nashua … for one reason, and that reason was sex,” she told jurors, adding that having sex was Avery’s “one intent.”

Avery’s attorney, Timothy Harrington, predicted that once jurors hear all the evidence, they will find his client not guilty.

“The specific reason is, my client did not believe the person he was speaking to was under the age of 16,” Harrington said, referring to the email exchanges.

“That’s it.”

In order to find a defendant guilty, Harrington continued, “you need two things – you have to have intent, and you have to have an act.

“Under our laws, unless (a defendant) intended, and acted, to do something, a crime was not committed. And that defendant is not guilty,” Harrington said.

He said the emails started when Gilbert responded to an ad Avery had reportedly posted on a social media site under the category “casual encounters.”

“Looking for young women in trailer parks,” the ad read, according to the lawyers, followed by “need help?” “need a friend?” “Contact me.”

“Then there’s a response … it’s from Detective Gilbert, posing as ‘Lizzie,'” Harrington said, referring to a portion of the email address Gilbert created as his online “persona.”

Gilbert testified he created the persona on July 10, and the email exchanges with Avery began the next day and continued through July 21, the day Avery was arrested.

Gilbert, during the interview with Avery played in court Wednesday, asked Avery numerous times if he believed the person he was communicating with was an underage girl.

“I don’t know what I believed,” was among Avery’s responses.

Asked if he “assumed the person on the other end was 14,” Avery responded, “no … it could have been a 90-year-old man … you just don’t know who they are,” he said, referring to people communicating online.

“Did the ‘girl’ tell you she is 14?” Gilbert asked. “Yes,” Avery said. “You believed her?” Gilbert asked.

“I don’t know, sir,” Avery responded.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256, dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com, or @Telegraph_DeanS.