BRANFORD, CT —Tyler Purskey, 34, of Branford, was found guilty by a jury after evidence at trial showed he sent in excess of 9,000 texts, including sexually explicit ones, to a 12-year-old, prosecutors said.

John P. Doyle Jr., State’s Attorney for the Judicial District of New Haven announced that Purskey was convicted of Enticing a Minor and Risk of Injury to a Minor.

Doyle said that according to evidence introduced at trial, Purskey texted the child from Sept. 3, 2019 to Nov. 1, 2019

“The evidence showed that the defendant did this in an attempt to entice the minor into sexual activity,” Doyle said. “At the time, the defendant was a tennis instructor for the minor child.”

A former tennis pro at the Guilford Racquet & Swim Club, Purskey, then 30 and then of North Haven, was charged by Guilford Police in June 2020. Read that story here.

In 2022, Club owner Sarah Boone said there was an “incident” in September and Purskey was let go immediately. “When we became aware that something was going on, we took immediate action,” Boone told Patch at the time. She said then that as soon as the Club becasme aware of “what happened” Nov. 1, Purskey was fired.

Purskey identifies as the club’s tennis pro on a LinkedIn page. He was assistant coach for Guilford boys’ tennis, per a report from 2016.

The charge of enticing a minor is when a person uses the internet to “knowingly persuade, induce, entice or coerce” a minor “to engage in prostitution or sexual activity …,” according to the state statute.

Risk of injury to a child is defined as when a person, “…willfully or unlawfully causes or permits any child under the age of 16 …to be placed in such a situation that the life or limb of such child is endangered, the health of such child is likely to be injured or the morals of such child are likely to be impaired…,” according to the state statute.

Purskey is set to be sentenced April 4 in New Haven Superior Court.

The case was investigated by the Guilford Police Department and was prosecuted by Assistant State’s Attorney Sarah E. Jones and Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney David J. Strollo, with assistance from Inspectors Michael Mastropetre and Kevin Grenier.

The State’s Attorney would like to thank the FBI and Emanuel Hatzikostas, FBI Master Digital Forensic Examiner, for his extensive work in this investigation.