FBI: Child Sexual Exploitation Threat From Pedophiles Online Is ‘Vast And Extensive’

The FBI released the above photo and the below report:

The case of a Tennessee man sentenced last month to 21 years in prison on child pornography charges serves as an important reminder to parents and children about the dangers of an online world where things are not always as they appear and pedophiles may be lurking around many virtual corners.

Brian K. Hendrix was convicted earlier this year in connection with his operation of two websites whose sole purpose was to trick children into engaging in sexually explicit activity that he and his co-conspirators were secretly recording. An investigation identified more than 300 American children who were victims—some as young as 8 years old—and an estimated 1,600 other youths who were lured to the websites.

The pedophiles tricked their young victims by creating fake profiles on social networking sites, where they posed as teenagers to lure children to their websites. When the youngsters landed on the sites, the 42-year-old Hendrix and his criminal colleagues showed them pre-recorded sexual videos of prior victims to make the new victims think they were chatting with their peers.

Once lured to the websites, the criminals—masquerading as teens—used sophisticated psychological tactics to coerce many of the children to engage in sexually explicit activity using the cameras on their tablets, smartphones, and desktop computers—all of which the adults recorded.

“Hendrix was one of several main members of the conspiracy,” said Special Agent Paul Cha of the FBI’s Violent Crimes Against Children Section. “Pedophiles are very active online,” he said. “Their numbers are vast, and their reach is extensive. They track children’s activities. When they realized how popular chat sites are with children, they found a way to exploit it.”

The FBI-led investigation, dubbed Operation Subterfuge, has thus far resulted in the conviction of eight others besides Hendrix, with average prison sentences ranging between 18 and 21 years. Cha explained that most of the children caught up in the exploitation had no idea they had been victimized.

The majority of the victims were American, but victims were also located in Canada and several other countries. Because of the large number of children impacted, investigators enlisted the help of the FBI’s Office for Victim Assistance to inform parents about the crimes and to offer assistance. When contacted by the FBI, Cha said, “Many of the parents were in complete shock.”

The victims and their families came from all social and economic backgrounds, according to Special Agent Daniel Johns, an Operation Subterfuge investigator. “There were victims who came from good homes with very active, stable parents.”

Pedophiles are experts at grooming and coercing youngsters, Johns said, and sometimes as many as 20 adults posing as teens were on the websites, manipulating children. “Their coercive tactics—that constant barrage on a child’s mind—succeeded in breaking down their barriers,” he said. “These tactics have been perfected by predators to make a child feel bad. And the adults were all working together. In a lot of cases, the kids really didn’t stand a chance.”

Johns, a veteran child exploitation investigator, said this case represented a level of sophistication on the part of pedophiles he has never seen before. “From creating their own website to giving that website the ability to record the criminal activity and then to be able to download it—along with the sophistication, coordination, and grooming to be able to break down all the child’s barriers—is disconcerting.”

Increasingly, children of all ages own or have access to devices that allow them to get online. Johns urges parents to follow a few simple rules when it comes to social networking sites and Internet usage in general for children: “Tell your kids that if they haven’t met the person in real life, they shouldn’t be friends online,” he said, adding, “Limit your child’s device usage to common areas of the household, and store those devices in your bedroom at night.”

FBI: Child Pornography Case Results In Lengthy Prison Sentences

The FBI web site offers the below piece:

It was a horrific instance of child sexual exploitation that went on for approximately three years. But in the end, Patricia and Matthew Ayers—who pled guilty to crimes against a child in their custody—were recently sentenced to an astonishing 2,340 years collectively behind bars (1,590 for her, 750 for him).

The federal judge who handed down those sentences told the defendants, “I have been on the bench since 1998 and this is the worst case I have personally dealt with. ... You robbed this child of her childhood and her soul, and a maximum sentence is the only sentence appropriate.”

The case began in Alabama in December 2012, when a friend of the Ayers contacted local authorities after seeing digital pornographic pictures of a child that were provided to him by Patricia Ayers. The Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office served a search warrant at the Ayers’ residence in Florence and seized computers, cell phone, cameras, and electronic storage media devices. Patricia Ayers—who admitted taking the images of the child, initially claiming they were taken for the purposes of documenting a rash—was arrested.

Found among the thousands of pornographic images on the seized devices were pictures of Matthew Ayers and the young victim engaged in sexual acts—he was then arrested by local authorities as well.

In early January 2013, Lauderdale authorities requested the Bureau’s assistance, and our Florence Resident Agency (out of the FBI Birmingham Field Office) opened a federal child pornography investigation.

Another search warrant was served at the Ayers’ residence to locate and document items seen in the child pornography images suspected of being produced in the home. A previous address that the Ayers occupied was also searched—with the consent of the current homeowners—and law enforcement identified wallpaper in that house as the same wallpaper visible in some of the images.
During the course of the investigation, an agent from our Dallas Field Office who was working another child pornography matter was able to connect his case—and his subject—to Patricia Ayers through an automated search of FBI records. Among other links, Patricia Ayers had e-mailed the subject of the Dallas case images of child pornography, including pictures of the child in the Ayers’ custody. The Ayers were indicted on federal charges in May 2014.

Assisting Bureau agents on the Ayers case was an FBI Computer Analysis and Response Team expert who reviewed all of the digital evidence seized during the search warrants, as well as FBI analysts who carefully scrutinized every image for clues as to when and where it was taken, what was being shown, and who was pictured.

Also involved were forensic child interviewers from our Office for Victim Assistance at FBI Headquarters, who are specially trained to get young crime victims and witnesses to talk about what they experienced while not traumatizing them any further. And FBI Birmingham’s local victim assistance specialist worked with the victim from the beginning of the case through sentencing and beyond, offering much-needed support, some counseling, and additional community resource referrals. The victim—who is believed to have been around 6 years old when the abuse started—is now in the care of family members.

This case and others like it demonstrate the value of—and the need for—law enforcement’s lawful access to digital media.

FBI: Child Sexual Exploitation Case As Serious As It Gets

The FBI web site offers the below story:

According to the federal judge who heard the case, the defendant’s conduct was “about as serious as it gets,” and that on a scale of one to 10, she believed the case was “way past 10.” Then she sentenced the defendant—James Alfred Beckman, Jr. of Grand Rapids, Michigan—to 30 years in prison.

What crimes moved the judge in this case to hand down such a substantial prison term? Multiple counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a child, attempted coercion of a child, and receipt and distribution of child pornography. And in addition to the lengthy prison stay, the judge also imposed a lifetime term of supervised release on the defendant once he gets out, ordering that he register as a sex offender.

The success of this case, as with many investigations involving the FBI, can be attributed to the close working relationship between Bureau investigators and our partners—in this instance, troopers from the Michigan State Police (MSP) and prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan. The agencies’ seamless interactions resulted in the incarceration of an individual who posed a very dangerous threat to children.

The investigation into the illicit activities of Beckman began in September 2012, when a woman came to the MSP with allegations that Beckman had sexually abused her young child. The youngster reported that during the abuse, a computer and webcam had been present. Troopers opened a case and involved the state’s Child Protective Services to conduct interviews of the young victim and another child by an expert who is specially trained to interact with children who are victims of crime.

MSP investigators interviewed Beckman and performed forensic exams on his computers. The examination of Beckman’s work laptop turned up not only photos of child pornography but also evidence of a network of individuals trafficking in child pornography. It was at that point—when the MSP determined that Beckman’s activities had spread outside the state of Michigan—that FBI assistance was solicited, and we opened a case in October 2012.

Continuing to work together, the MSP and FBI obtained evidence of online chats that Beckman had with others in his child pornography network. During many of the chats, Beckman was soliciting individuals who were conducting sexual acts with children, usually encouraging conversations about these activities and exchanging pornographic images and videos with them. Working to identify those in the network, the Bureau sent out leads to a number of our field offices around the country and several of our legal attaché offices overseas.

A unique set of circumstances surrounded the sexual exploitation charges. Evidence presented at trial showed that Beckman sexually abused and exploited two young children, and he streamed and attempted to stream live video of this abuse and exploitation to others. Because he streamed his child pornography via webcam, we had no images or videos to enter as evidence. However, we managed to track down a number of people Beckman streamed to—and two of them testified against him in court. One of those two individuals was charged, pled guilty, and was sentenced to a 12-year prison term. Charges are pending against the second.

After a two-week trial during which one of the young victims testified against Beckman from a room outside the courtroom, a jury found the defendant guilty on 15 of the 16 charges against him.