A Youngstown State University student, formerly from Crescent, has been indicted in federal court on a charge of inducing a 14-year-old Beaver County boy into having sex.

Michael Murdoch, 23, used the Internet to arrange sexual encounters twice last year with the boy, who is now 15, according to the FBI and Beaver County detectives. The U.S. attorney's office announced the indictment Wednesday.

U.S. Magistrate Lisa Pupo Lenihan had allowed Murdoch to be released to his mother, Christy Murdoch, in Scottdale, Westmoreland County.

But the U.S. attorney's office objected, saying Murdoch was a danger to other boys. The FBI said he had admitted to engaging in an orgy with underage boys and men while on vacation in Florida in 2003 and also may have molested a 12-year-old boy.

In addition, after Christy Murdoch said no boys lived in her neighborhood, the FBI conducted surveillance and said two teenage boys did live nearby.

On March 1, U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti ordered Murdoch held in custody pending trial.

According to an FBI affidavit, Murdoch and the boy met in a homosexual chat room in June and arranged a meeting. They didn't have sex that time, according to the boy, but they did in September after Murdoch picked him up at his home.

The victim said they had sex again after another online chat in July.

The case developed when the boy's family contacted police in October.

A forensic search of the boy's computer showed extensive, sexually explicit e-mails between the two, with Murdoch using the screen names "mikey21boi" and "ysucutieboi." YSU stands for Youngstown State University, where the FBI said Murdoch was a student, although it's not clear when he was enrolled there.

Murdoch had told the victim he was 25, but his birthday is actually Dec. 16, 1981.

He was arrested on Feb. 11. As magistrates have repeatedly done in crimes-against-children cases here, Lenihan let him go over the objections of prosecutors.

In federal courts, the burden of proof for pretrial detention is on the defendant, who has to prove why he shouldn't be locked up.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tina Miller argued that Lenihan was wrong to release Murdoch, so she appealed and won.