A 22-YEAR-OLD Florida man has been handed a 139-year jail sentence for an elaborate “sextortion” scheme, involving explicit images of hundreds of boys, some as young as 11.
In November 2012, Patrick Killen Jr, from Hialeah in South Florida, began downloading photographs from the Facebook and Instagram accounts of several teenage girls.
He then used those images to set up fake profiles on social networks and messenger apps such as Kik, Skype and Omegle, where he presented himself as a teenage girl, with usernames like rebeccatill05, beverlyhills05, and chanelizzabel.
He then targeted the profiles of teenage boys, generally aged between 11 and 14, and began conversations with them, lasting between hours and months, under the pretence that he was himself a teenage girl.
According to Wilfredo Ferrer, the US Attorney for Southern Florida:
Killen would beg, bribe and cajole the unsuspecting boys to send him sexually explicit pictures of themselves.
In response to Killen’s fraudulent representations, hundreds of teenage boys sent Killen sexually explicit photographs and videos identified as child pornography.
If the boys then refused to send more explicit images, Killen then used those already in his possession as leverage – threatening to post them online and humiliate his targets.
In response, some of the boys sent further explicit photos of themselves to Killen, who then shared and traded them online throughout the world.
Killen collected, catalogued and traded the child pornography photographs and videos with other individuals around the world using peer-to-peer file sharing programs.
In total, according to Ferrer:
Killen produced, possessed, distributed and received thousands of images and video of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
The 22-year-old was convicted in July on 16 counts of possession, production, receipt and distribution of child pornography, including images of a child under the age of 12.
Killen was also found guilty of making threats (blackmail) across state boundaries.
On Thursday, US District Court Judge K Michael Moore handed him a combined sentence of 1,668 months in prison, or 139 years.
Chief prosecutor Wilfredo Ferrer said in a statement:
The lengthy sentence handed down today sends a message to those who use the Internet to target and extort children through sexual exploitation ‘sextortion’ and pornographic offences.
FBI Special Agent in Charge, George Piro, added:
The conduct of Patrick Killen Jr., is as appalling as it is inexcusable…The FBI and its Child Exploitation Task Force aggressively investigates allegations of sextortion and other online offenses against children.
Read the indictment against Patrick Killen, here.
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