Hutchinson ? A Hutchinson man was sentenced to 12 years in prison for planning to have sex with a fictitious 10-year-old girl.

Steven Peterman, 45, was sentenced Friday in Reno County District Court for attempted rape, solicitation to commit rape and sexual exploitation of a child.

He was convicted Nov. 27.

Prosecutors said Peterman tried to talk a female acquaintance into giving him access to the girl. The woman made the girl up, Dist. Atty. Keith Schroeder said, in an attempt to torpedo a child pornography ring in which she thought Peterman was involved.

Peterman was arrested in the fall of 2001 at the woman’s residence. The arrest yielded several photos characterized by police as child pornography, along with a variety of sex toys.

Schroeder said he filed attempted rape charges even though the girl never existed, because Schroeder believed she was real and intended to have sex with her.

Taking sex toys to the woman’s home was proof of criminal intent to have sex with a child, Schroeder said.

Peterman initially was charged with 10 counts of child pornography, but Judge Tim Chambers dismissed them as unconstitutional earlier this fall.