Predator Commentary: Robert Lyons | To Catch a Predator with Chris Hansen Analysis | TCAP

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Hi, I'm Brandon and I'm back to do a commentary on Robert Lyons, the sneaky predator. Let's do it.

[00:00:09]Hey out there.

[00:00:11]Hi.

[00:00:12]Hey, let me finish brushing my teeth real fast, okay?

[00:00:16]This guy, they all just look so ridiculous just pulling the curtain aside and peeking in. Like he just For one, it looks like some kind of a set, which I guess it is, and it just makes him look so shady. Like they just like open it up and then they like they keep their body open, they stick their head in just to look around. It's a It's a little unnerving. What happened? I have crap stuck in my teeth.

[00:00:39]Your feet?

[00:00:41]Yeah, she has crap stuck in her feet.

[00:00:44]No, her feet get whacked on the banister and then she has crap stuck in her teeth. Get it straight, Robert. We were watching from the next room on the monitor as Robert Lyons came into the backyard and started to open the sliding door to come into the kitchen.

[00:01:05]Just just hang out at the kitchen counter for a second, okay? What happened?

[00:01:09]Do you want a drink or something? No, it's okay. All right, just hang out at the counter. I got to go get my shirt on. Hang out at the counter?

[00:01:15]Sit Get her shirt on? I thought you were brushing your teeth. Sit out at the counter for a second. I got to go get my shirt on. This uh this story's all over the place.

[00:01:27]Keep Yeah, he's 68. I think if I'm not mistaken, he might have been the oldest predator in all of the original TCAP.

[00:01:33]He's since been beaten several times by the new takedown cuz the predators, a lot of them seem older, but at this time this guy was was ancient. He was leery.

[00:01:43]Suspicious. Yeah, and he's got that weird lip twitch quiver thing.

[00:01:48]And sneaky looking. You know, he kind of looks in and He looks like the um Let's back it up here.

[00:01:56]You know, he kind of looks in and He looks like He looks like Bernie from Weekend at Bernie's.

[00:02:02]Pure around. And and as it turned out, Lyons had good reason to be suspicious.

[00:02:09]It wasn't his first time down this path. Robert Lyons and his lewd and leuder lascivious acts with a child Lascivious. It's lascivious. 14 or 15 years old.

[00:02:20]So, same sort of sex crime. Robert Emmett Lyons. What's crazy is he says in Check this out. He says in the chat that he is 28, right?

[00:02:30]>> Right.

[00:02:31]>> That ain't no 28.

[00:02:32]>> He's There's no way he's 28. I think he dresses and stands like he's 28, but he ain't 28. He ain't no In fact, he was 68 years old. Now, we see a lot of fibbing online about ages, but it's usually 5 or 10 years.

[00:02:48]You know, not 40 years. This is his picture, right?

[00:02:53]That's his sex offender Maybe he just had a really heavy smoking problem, so he just aged aged a lot by the age of 28. First your picture. It's the same guy. Yeah.

[00:03:06]Yeah.

[00:03:08]Everything is the same.

[00:03:09]>> When you think that this guy had just recently pleaded guilty to having sex with an underage boy, that he had the the guts to tell somebody he was 40 years younger than he really was, and then to follow through on the chat by actually showing up.

[00:03:28]I I I mean it's stunning.

[00:03:31]It's honestly not that stunning. Like we've seen other guys do it, Kevin Westerbeck. Like it's I almost come to expect it.

[00:03:38]Let's say it's almost more surprising if the guys are new at this.

[00:03:43]Especially by this age. It's like, oh, he has a history of doing this kind of thing. These guys will never learn.

[00:03:48]Put them in prison or give them counseling or beat the hell out of them, do whatever you want to do, and it's like, yep, as soon as they get the chance, they have that compulsion, they will do it again.

[00:03:58]What was your plan here today, Robert?

[00:04:03]To look fat. No plan at all?

[00:04:06]You know, I've got the transcripts of your conversation here. I'm sorry.

[00:04:09]Robert, you've been through this before.

[00:04:11]Like you are the last guy that we are ever going to believe that you didn't come there to do anything. I've got the transcript >> You're already on the sex offender list.

[00:04:20]of your conversation here.

[00:04:23]Yeah, what the hell's going on? Is that a nervous twitch or is that just some kind of Tourette's thing that he has?

[00:04:31]You say to him, I'll be your girlfriend and you be my boy >> It'd be so awkward talking to someone and they were doing that. friend, huh?

[00:04:37]Especially if they were also a sexual predator. He says, are you a girl? You say, no, sometimes I wish I really was.

[00:04:42]He says, what do you wear? You say, panties, bra.

[00:04:49]It's a pretty sexually charged conversation, Robert, to have with a 13-year-old boy.

[00:04:55]What conclusion am I to draw from this?

[00:04:58]Just conversation that probably was offhanded. What it sounds like, Robert, Yeah, he's just trying to use the um soft language. It probably was yeah uh offhanded. No, it was absolutely predatory and disgusting and illegal. Robert, is that you wanted to come here to have a sexual liaison with a 13-year-old boy?

[00:05:28]No, that was not my intention. What was your intention?

[00:05:31]Just to Hang out?

[00:05:35]Talk, whatever. No, I got it wrong.

[00:05:38]50/50, could have been just hang out or just talk.

[00:05:40]>> Problem, Robert, is is that your history would contradict that.

[00:05:46]Given the fact that you were Yeah, that's the thing. Like Like pretty much all the guys say Look at his eyes.

[00:05:51]Um all the guys say that.

[00:05:53]And the ones who do not have a history, it's like there's a chance. Like you very hesitant to believe them cuz most of them are probably lying. But you can't prove that they're not cuz they've never been caught before, they don't have a history. Once you have a history, once you're officially on the sex offender registry, you lose the right to say that you didn't have uh bad intent when you showed up after having a sexual conversation with a minor. Like you've already done it. We We know your history, we know what you're like, we know what kind of things you do, so stop lying, Robert. a registered sex offender.

[00:06:26]Isn't that correct? Correct.

[00:06:28]And what were you convicted of before?

[00:06:32]Lewd conduct. Lewd conduct.

[00:06:33]Specifically, what was that conduct? Um With a minor. With a minor. What did you do with a minor?

[00:06:40]Sexual. Sexual.

[00:06:43]He's just answering everything with one word and being as vague as possible.

[00:06:48]Like what did you do with the minor?

[00:06:50]Sexual?

[00:06:52]Okay, well, that's a weird way to say it, and that's quite vague. I mean, not that I don't think they're going to really want to hear the the gritty details, but uh obviously he's trying to give away as little information as possible. In what way sexual?

[00:07:06]There was intercourse.

[00:07:09]Intercourse?

[00:07:10]Ah, really?

[00:07:12]So, you had intercourse with a underage boy?

[00:07:16]Yes.

[00:07:17]Even though we do as much background research as we can on these guys, there are still certain things that you only find out once you're face to face and you can have a discussion. Like the fact that the guy has a very weird lip twitch. So, you were convicted of that.

[00:07:31]How long were you in prison?

[00:07:33]I'm sorry. How long were you in prison for that offense? I wasn't in prison.

[00:07:36]You weren't in prison? What?

[00:07:39]How did Like did he seriously get probation for that?

[00:07:43]You got probation? Correct.

[00:07:45]He got probation for having intercourse with a minor.

[00:07:50]Holy [ __ ] How long were you on probation?

[00:07:53]I'm still on probation. You're still on probation now?

[00:07:56]So, you're on probation for having sex with a boy how old?

[00:08:01]15. 15.

[00:08:03]So, basically he got away with it.

[00:08:05]He got away scot-free for doing that horrible crime.

[00:08:09]And he could have just left it as is and lived his life, and instead he just pushes his luck and does it again while he's on probation. I swear to God, he better have gotten jail time this time.

[00:08:20]And now you're in this house to meet a 13-year-old boy.

[00:08:26]How does that look, Robert?

[00:08:27]>> I didn't know he didn't know he was 13.

[00:08:28]He said so. He was just coming over there to talk and hang out. Yeah, like Yeah, I'm sure the cops are really going to or the judge or whoever's going to really believe that this time after you've done it before, admitted to it, um are on the sex offender registry, and you're on probation, and they have the chat log, and then he claims, oh, I didn't know the age. Yeah, yeah, right.

[00:08:47]was not going to deviate from the script one bit. He he was going to stick to his story until the bitter end. What would have happened if I wasn't here, Robert?

[00:08:59]I don't know. Intercourse?

[00:09:01]We probably would have talked and bonded and met up yesterday. And talked and met up. Is that what you did with the 15-year-old boy in the last case?

[00:09:08]>> I made a mistake. He just And I didn't even know he was 15. He told me he was 18.

[00:09:14]What did you learn Yeah, and So, a lot of these guys, not necessarily in TCAP, but just cases you hear in the news and stuff, like they they always claim like, oh, there was she lied and told me that she was 18, she had a fake ID, I didn't know, and uh And So, it seems like it's only these sexual predators that find themselves in those situations. Like I suppose it's possible to be tricked, but mostly if you're like a younger kind of man, not a 68-year-old. I even There was one video on YouTube. Can't remember which one it is, but um this guy was uh like he was a on the sex offender registry, and he claimed that he was young, he was like 20 or something when apparently had sex with a 14-year-old, but he claimed he had this story that she lied about her age or whatever. It was all this set up, uh, whatever, but he ended up getting brief jail time for it. And as soon as he was released from prison, he went and had sex with another 14-year-old.

[00:10:07]And he got 7 years in prison, and then he got released, um, after 7 years and was on parole, and very soon after being released, he broke his parole and got re-arrested.

[00:10:18]And it's like, yeah, like even though that was a James from Takedown that I did a commentary on, uh, fairly recently. He was caught when he was like 21, and it was like, "Oh, yeah, she was underage. It was, you know, some sort of mix-up." But then here he is, 20 years later, doing the exact same thing.

[00:10:34]So, you can't believe what these guys say. He probably knew the age of this previous victim. And then just concocted some kind of [ __ ] story like he is here that, "Oh, he told me he was 18, so it meant it was okay." And then he gets busted. Like, they they always have some kind of excuse. But the thing is, normal people typically aren't involved in situations where the person they're about to have sex with may or may not be a minor.

[00:10:58]Like, there's some confusion. Maybe they're joking, maybe it's a mistake, maybe you didn't read it right. That just doesn't happen. I mean, maybe maybe I'm wrong, maybe that happens to other people. I just don't think so.

[00:11:11]It just seems that the only people that have that confusion over the age are people who get convicted or who get, uh, caught trying to have sex with underage person.

[00:11:21]So, his whole thing that like, "Oh, that doesn't really count because, uh, you know, he said he was 18." Like, no, he probably said he was 15. You're giving us a [ __ ] excuse. From your previous mistake?

[00:11:32]I learned not to be more careful with more students, stay away from uh, uh, connect not to be subjected to either proposition or making proposition to anybody. But What?

[00:11:51]The What the hell are you talking about, Robert, you idiot?

[00:11:55]I don't want to be in a situation where I'm going to be propositioned or proposition anyone. Just don't have sex with minors, period. That's it.

[00:12:02]Otherwise, go nuts. You can proposition people in an inappropriate way if they're an appropriate age.

[00:12:09]So, like, what the hell? That's the stupidest way I've heard them phrase it.

[00:12:13]Robert, you're in a home trying to meet a 13-year-old boy.

[00:12:17]Yeah, I guess his last time he was like, you know, that boy was 15, but it was a bit too old. It just didn't quite do it for me. Maybe if I you know, go a couple years younger, maybe I can, uh, maybe that'll be a satisfying experience.

[00:12:31]You had to register as a sex offender.

[00:12:33]Correct.

[00:12:35]Do you see a counselor? Correct. You do?

[00:12:37]Yeah.

[00:12:38]Of course he sees a counselor. I don't I can't say for sure cuz I I'm not a counselor myself, but I have a feeling that they don't really offer much help.

[00:12:45]The kind of person that would do this kind of thing is going to do it regardless of whether or not they see a counselor.

[00:12:52]And the kind of person that would never do this kind of thing would just never do it. So, it's like you can see a counselor all they want. Like, you meet someone once a week to talk for an hour, and that's going to stop you from being a predator? Like, it's probably not stop a single person or very, very few.

[00:13:07]Like, it's basically, the only choice is jail. Just physically keep them away from other people. Um, and even cuz even just if they're out on release, and like, you would have to monitor them like 24 hours a day.

[00:13:20]There's just not enough manpower, there's not enough police to like follow these guys around. So, to a certain degree, you have to trust them not to do this, which of course you can't because they keep doing it.

[00:13:30]So, yeah, it doesn't surprise me at all that he's seeing a counselor. It's like, yeah, that's just And I get it that, you know, authorities, they, you know, they don't know how to deal with this problem.

[00:13:39]So, they're trying to do the best they can, but it's like at least if they had to put him in prison for years like he deserved for that last case, he would still be in prison right now.

[00:13:50]And that means that if this boy here had have been real, this boy would not have been victimized. So, they would have been saving uh, potential victims. So, it's worth having this dirtbag in jail just to save people. Instead, it's like, yeah, we'll give you parole, just promise not to do it again, and see a counselor. And then he just goes and does the exact same thing again. Hopefully this time the judge is like, maybe he's not going to learn, so maybe we need to punish him severely.

[00:14:15]And when was the last time you saw your counselor? Like 2 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago. Did you talk about him?

[00:14:19]>> it's every 2 weeks, or maybe it's once a month. Sexually charged conversation on the internet with a 13-year-old boy? No.

[00:14:26]Why did you tell 13-year-old Luke that you were 40 years younger than you actually are? Cuz I think the internet is a is a place where you you just >> [snorts] >> it's it's so it's been a pretension.

[00:14:40]A pretension?

[00:14:42]You pretend to be this, pretend to be that, but it's not real.

[00:14:45]I don't know. I've I've used the internet a lot. I've never pretended to be what I'm what I'm not. Um, I would never never lie about my age.

[00:14:53]And yeah, like, no, the reason he lied about his age was because he thought a 68-year-old would seem too old for this young boy. So, he lied about being 28 cuz he thought that might seem quite a bit older, but not as freakishly older.

[00:15:07]So, that's obviously the reason he did it. Uh, him and these guys try to pretend like, "That's just the way the internet is. You don't understand our our culture here. Everyone lies about their age." It's like, not really. I don't I mean, I've done quite a bit of internet dating, like appropriate dating. And I don't think I've ever I've never lied about my age once. I don't think I've ever had a woman lie about her age. It's it's not something I ran into. It's once you start getting into this predatory, deviant type behavior that they have to lie about their age, um, in order to trick someone into an experience.

[00:15:43]Again, maybe other people have a dif- different experience with the with the internet, but I don't think this is normal.

[00:15:49]Is this pretend what you're doing here today? No, it seems pretty real to me.

[00:15:53]This one's real. Yeah, it's real.

[00:15:55]Yeah.

[00:15:56]He deposit again, but it's one of those things that the a lot of the guys say.

[00:16:00]They always say that like, "Well, you know, I lie about my age, so that means that whatever age the decoy gave me, um, it means that it's not real cuz age is it doesn't mean anything. Everyone lies about everything, so they could have been 25 and lying about being 13, or, you know, maybe they're 68 lying about being 28. So, as long as they create this like fog of confusion around age where it's it's like, 'Hey, in our world on the internet, it's meaningless, so I couldn't have known for sure.'"

[00:16:26]It's like, no, that does not work. A lot of the guys say that, and as we've seen, the guys go to prison because that is [ __ ] It doesn't work. If the person says they're underage, you have to believe it. Even if they are lying, even if you know for sure they're lying, to save your own ass and any potential problems, you should just stay away.

[00:16:44]You should not have done what you did.

[00:16:47]So, what does that say about your ability to distinguish between what is pretend and what is real?

[00:16:53]This there's a a fine line between that. It's kind of a Do you know what could happen to you now?

[00:17:01]There there's no fine line between anything, Robert. It's just, uh, 18 and over. That's it. 100%.

[00:17:09]As a convicted sex offender Correct.

[00:17:11]showing up here.

[00:17:14]What should happen to you?

[00:17:16]I'm not really sure.

[00:17:18]Really?

[00:17:19]You can't even take a guess. You can't take a guess of what you deserve.

[00:17:23]You were spared prison time last time in exchange for parole or probation as long as you, uh, behaved yourself and didn't do this again. And then you did it again. So, what the hell? How can you not know what you deserve? Probably more enforcement of of, uh, of my counseling.

[00:17:48]More enforcement of his counseling?

[00:17:50]>> [laughter] >> Yeah, look at Chris. He's like, did that this idiot seriously just say that?

[00:17:54]Like, are you kidding me?

[00:17:57]Like, more enforcement? It's not up to The whole thing is like, you have to enforce yourself. Once they let you go on probation and give you all these rules, it's like, follow these rules so you don't get in trouble again. You can't be like, "Hey, you guys didn't enforce them enough, so it's not my fault that I break the law."

[00:18:12]Like like, what a that I would say that's the worst excuse I've heard yet.

[00:18:16]Like, that is the stupidest thing. It's like, well, they don't enforce He didn't even say enforce my probation more because there's probably like restrictions involved with that. So, he's like, "Just enforce my, um, my counseling more." Like, what? Make you go dub twice as much, or make the counselor talk louder? Like, what What does that mean, enforce it more?

[00:18:37]Well, Robert, I've got to tell you something.

[00:18:40]I'm Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC, and we're doing a story on computer predators.

[00:18:45]If there's anything else you'd like to say to us, we'd like to hear it.

[00:18:49]If not, there's obviously nothing I can do to keep you here, and you're obviously free to go.

[00:18:57]He knows he's in significant trouble.

[00:18:59]Man, Oh, yeah. Here you get to see him arrested.

[00:19:02]>> If you go back and look at the record from the previous case, it would appear that he perhaps got I wish they would get rougher with them, kind of like they do with, uh, the Petaluma guys, like Maurice Wollin.

[00:19:14]Like, point guns at him and just throw him down, and just, you know, really scare him. probation instead of prison time because the 15-year-old boy he pleaded guilty to having sex with told him he was older.

[00:19:29]>> How old? 68? And he wasn't going I just wanted to hear that again what Chris was saying. I was I was too enthralled with, uh, this scumbag being arrested.

[00:19:39]significant trouble. Man, if you go back and look at the record from the previous case, it would appear that he perhaps got probation instead of prison time because the 15-year-old boy he pleaded guilty to having sex with told him he was older.

[00:19:57]>> How old? 68? Okay, so basically the reason he got off is because the 15-year-old lied about being 18. So they gave him like a little bit of punishment because you know, he was doing something kind of wrong.

[00:20:11]Yeah, obvi- and obviously as we see here now we it probably confirms that he damn well knew how old the boy was last time he was lying about it.

[00:20:21]And he wasn't going to catch a break on this one because it said in the transcript this boy was 13.

[00:20:30]Robert Lyons? Yeah. I had somebody else.

[00:20:33]Clearly he's had experience going through the criminal justice system. But it became pretty clear immediately during the police interview that Lyons knew his way around the system and saw no benefit whatsoever in having any meaningful conversation with detectives.

[00:20:53]Why you here?

[00:20:54]Tell me what's going on today.

[00:20:57]This is a different different way of doing the interrogations. This he's just sitting on a tiny chair in a parking lot. It's a interesting. What are you coming over to house for?

[00:21:10]Uh at this point I think I'd rather talk to my attorney on this.

[00:21:13]>> Okay.

[00:21:16]Robert Lyons pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 5 years in state prison.

[00:21:20]Okay, well at least he got a a prison sentence. Hopefully he served like all of that. All right, well that's it for this guy. Thanks for watching everyone and I will see you next time.