Seven men were slammed with lengthy prison sentences on Aug. 29 and Aug. 30 for operating a scheme to trick over 90 underage girls into performing sexually explicit activities on camera.
Six of the men, aged 24-45, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce child pornography and conspiracy to receive and distribute child pornography, and are facing 18-30 years behind bars. The seventh, Brandon Gressette, 33, of Summerville, South Carolina, was sentenced to 40 years after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce child pornography and two counts of production of child pornography.
Investigators identified 91 victims from 28 states and Canada.
The defendants hailed from South Carolina, Michigan, Maryland, Georgia, Colorado, Utah, and Missouri. Another man connected to the conspiracy was sentenced to 18 years in March 2017. The defendants were also ordered to pay a fine and restitution to victims to the tune of more than $200,000.
“This case illustrates that even sophisticated technological means will not protect predators online from being brought to justice,” said U.S. Attorney Sherri Lydon of the District of South Carolina.
The case was investigated by the FBI field offices in Newark, New Jersey; Columbia, South Carolina; and the FBI Major Case Coordination Unit.
Epidemic
The method used by the perpetrators in this case represents a new trend in how online predators operate, a senior Justice Department official told The Epoch Times. Sometimes they also force their victims into producing more explicit content by threatening to release the already obtained pictures and videos to the victims’ families or online.While the prosecutions have remained steady, the crime has skyrocketed as the social media provides predators easy access to potential victims.
Analysis of the explicit images online revealed a five-fold increase from 3,000 identified victims in 2010 to 15,000 in 2017, the official said.