A Bellevue man has been charged with sending illicit messages online to a naval officer posing as a 13-year-old girl.

Benjamin W. Watson will be arraigned December 5 on charges of immoral communication with a minor.

In January 2009, a naval agent was contacted online by Watson in a chat room. The agent told Watson she was 13, and he initially backed off. But he later continued to send sexually suggestive messages to the agent.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service followed up on the exchange, obtaining Watson’s information from Yahoo! and Comcast. NCIS agents seized several of his computers, and they also uncovered another sexually explicit exchange. Watson allegedly sent messages to someone claiming to be a 14-year-old girl. Further investigation showed that the a man convicted of child molestation was masquerading as the 14-year-old girl.

Watson admitted to the message exchanges during interviews with authorities, according to court documents.