Police: Maryland Man Arrested On Child Pornography Charges

Police: Maryland man arrested on child pornography charges, was developing websites to sell it

by Stephen Pimpo Jr.

Monrovia Md. -

Police said they arrested a Frederick County man Wednesday on charges for child pornography and trying to create host websites to sell it.

Maryland State Police said they identified 35-year-old Joshua Scalera as a suspect as part of an investigation that began after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children gave them a tip in 2016 about someone uploading child pornography to a website. Through their investigation, police said they discovered Scalera tried to create the websites to sell pornography "on several different occasions."

According to police, they continued to receive information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and their investigation led them to get a search warrant for Scalera's Monrovia home. Maryland State Police, Homeland Security and Frederick Police all searched the home Wednesday, where authorities said they found multiple child pornography files.

Scalera has been charged with three counts of distribution of child pornography and six counts of possession of child pornography. He is being held without bond.

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Union Cabinet Clears Ordinance on Death Penalty to Child Rapists

Updated: Apr 21, 2018, 15:24 IST

HIGHLIGHTS

The ordinance comes in the wake of outrage over the brutal rape and murder of a minor in Kathua, Jammu & Kashmir
It will now be sent to the President for approval.

NEW DELHI: In the wake of outrage over the brutal rape and murder of a minor in Kathua, Jammu & Kashmir, the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday approved an ordinance to allow courts to pronounce the death penalty to those convicted of raping children up to 12 years of age.
The criminal law amendment ordinance seeks to amend the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Evidence Act, the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act to introduce a new provision to sentence convicts of such crimes to death.

Today's ordinance approved by the Cabinet also prescribes the minimum punishment in case of rape of women to increase from rigorous imprisonment of 7 years to 10 years, extendable to life imprisonment. In case of rape of a girl under 16 years, minimum punishment has been increased from 10 years to 20 years, extendable to imprisonment for rest of life, which means imprisonment till that person’s natural life.
For speedy trial of rape cases, new fast track courts will be set up in consultation with States/UTs and High Courts.

The ordinance also prescribes that there will be no provision for anticipatory bail for a person accused of rape or gang rape of a girl under 16 years.
The ordinance is being initiated to enforce the amendment immediately before a bill is introduced and passed by Parliament. After the case of the eight-year-old Kathua victim, other instances, such as in Surat where a nine-year-old was raped and killed, have added urgency to the government’s actions.

The ordinance would be now sent to the President for his approval.
Existing provisions of the POCSO Act provide for life imprisonment, though after the Nirbhaya case in 2012 the Centre had introduced the death penalty in cases where a woman either dies or is left in a vegetative state after rape.

Recently, four states passed laws making the rape of a minor punishable by death.

The Cabinet meet follows the Centre informing the Supreme Court on Friday that it proposed to amend POCSO to provide for the death penalty for aggravated sexual assaults on children below 12.
(With inputs from agencies)

Original Article

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Child Sex Tourism: Florida Man Who Traveled to the Philippines to Exploit Children Sentenced to 330 Years in Prison

A 56-year-old Florida man who frequently traveled to the Philippines to have sex with children—and make video recordings of the abuse—will be spending the rest of his life behind bars for his crimes related to child sex tourism.

David Paul Lynch was convicted on multiple counts of producing and receiving child pornography and traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. A federal judge recently sentenced the Venice, Florida resident to 330 years in prison.

Evidence in the case revealed that for more than a decade beginning in 2005, Lynch made regular trips to the Philippines to have sex with children. Prior to traveling, he facilitated his illegal activity through online communication with individuals in the Philippines—in one case the mother of one of his victims.

“He used an online messaging platform to send and receive pictures and to arrange travel,” said Special Agent Daniel Ward, who supervises the FBI’s Fort Myers Child Exploitation Task Force in the Bureau’s Tampa Division. “Some of his victims were as young as 6 or seven years old.”

Lynch produced child pornography of at least three Filipino children on his visits and also solicited child pornography via e-mail from a fourth victim. The FBI was contacted about Lynch’s suspicious online behavior as a result of a longstanding partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which had received a tip from security personnel at the Internet sites where Lynch had posted pornographic images of children.

“He had no history of being a sexual offender,” Ward said, “but the child pornography he was sending and receiving online caught the attention of officials at the social media platform he was using. There was no question that these were little kids.”

The FBI opened an investigation, and in December 2016, Lynch was arrested in San Francisco attempting to board a flight to the Philippines. A simultaneous search of his home in Florida uncovered dozens of self-produced images and videos of child pornography from his previous trips abroad.

“He used an online messaging platform to send and receive pictures and to arrange travel. Some of his victims were as young as 6 or 7 years old.”
Daniel Ward, special agent, FBI Tampa

Megan Buck, a Sarasota Police Department detective and member of the Fort Myers Child Exploitation Task Force, investigated the case and arrested Lynch at the airport. “The Internet has made it relatively easy for people like Lynch to exploit children overseas,” she said.

A member of the multi-agency task force since 2013, Buck also worked the investigation with other federal law enforcement agencies—including U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations—as well as international authorities. Florida police departments who are members of the task force, including the Cape Coral Police Department, the Bradenton Police Department, and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, also assisted the investigation.

Lynch was convicted by a federal jury in October 2017 on eight counts related to child sex tourism, and a judge sentenced him in January 2018 to 330 years in prison. “The sentence he received sets a precedent and really sends a message,” Buck said. “The community is not going to tolerate this kind of exploitation of children anymore.”

Child Sex Tourism: It’s a Crime
Some people might think that what they do overseas can stay overseas, but child sex tourism—when people travel to another country specifically to engage in sexual conduct with children—is illegal, and it’s a serious crime.

The FBI, in conjunction with domestic and international law enforcement partners, investigates U.S. citizens and permanent residents who travel overseas to engage in illegal sexual conduct with children under the age of 18. Since 2008, the Bureau’s child sex tourism initiative has employed proactive strategies to address the crime, including aggressive investigations and prosecutions of individuals engaging in child sex tourism and working with foreign law enforcement and non-governmental organizations to provide child victims with resources and support services.

These crimes are exacerbated by the relative ease of international travel and the Internet being a platform for individuals exchanging information about how and where to find child victims in foreign locations.

More information about the FBI’s efforts to stop child sex tourism

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Virginia Man Indicted for Production and Distribution of Child Pornography

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Virginia Man Indicted for Production and Distribution of Child Pornography

A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia returned a nine-count indictment today charging a Manassas Park, Virginia man with seven counts of production of child pornography in addition to counts of distribution and possession of child pornography.

Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Tracy Doherty-McCormick of the Eastern District of Virginia, and Assistant Director in Charge Nancy McNamara of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement.

According to the indictment, Michael Gerald Moody, 44, among other things, used, employed, and coerced a child to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing images of that conduct.  He also distributed those images to others through the use of the mobile messaging application Kik Messenger.

The case is being investigated by the FBI with the assistance of the Manassas Park Police Department.  Trial Attorney Kyle P. Reynolds of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay V. Prabhu of the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

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Former Defense Contractor Pleads Guilty to Engaging in Commercial Sex with a Minor in the Philippines

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Former Defense Contractor Pleads Guilty to Engaging in Commercial Sex with a Minor in the Philippines

A U.S. citizen pleaded guilty today to paying a 14-year-old girl for sex on multiple occasions in 2007.

Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Lechleitner of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C., Special Agent in Charge Tracy Corimer of HSI St. Paul, Minnesota and Attaché Ransom J. Avilla of HSI Manila, Philippines made the announcement.

According to court documents, from in or about September 2007 until in or about December 2007, James Marvin Reed, then 52 years old, engaged in commercial sexual intercourse on multiple occasions with the then 14-year-old victim, and impregnated her, while he was working in the Philippines as a contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense. In 2016, he was arrested by Philippine authorities and returned to the United States for prosecution.

Reed pleaded guilty to one count of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place. His sentencing is scheduled in June before U.S. District Judge Donovan W. Frank in the District of Minnesota.

Trial Attorneys Ralph Paradiso and James E. Burke IV of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) are prosecuting the case. CEOS Trial Attorney Kathryn Furtado also served as a vital member of the prosecution team at earlier stages of the litigation.  The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota also provided substantial assistance in this prosecution.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

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Sex Traffickers Are Using Social Media To Target Children

Your personal data isn’t the only thing that’s vulnerable on Facebook.

The rise of social media has been a boon for sex traffickers, making it easier than ever for pimps to target, groom and sell your children, top law-enforcement officials say.

“These predators are watching, and they’re listening. They’re friending. They’re seeing, ‘Oh, she’s not happy with school,’ ‘Oh, he’s upset against his parents,’ ‘Oh, he has issues with his sexuality,’ or, ‘She’s having problems with her friends,’ ” says Inspector Jim Klein, commander of the NYPD’s Vice Enforcement Unit.

“Next thing you know, these predators pick up on this, and they start becoming friendly to the point they’re now separating these victims from everybody that’s important to them.”

Some traffickers don’t even hide what they do.

“We’ve had cases where our pimps are . . . friends with [their victims’] relatives, and they’re posting about pimping out girls and making money,” says Queens prosecutor Jessica Melton.

All they need is a cheap ad and a burner phone.

The classified-ads site Backpage.com was seized and shuttered by the feds this month, but when it was in business, 600 to 800 ads were posted for “prostitutes” in New York state each day, according to the NYPD.

Now Backpage’s rivals are moving to fill the void.

“There are multiple sites that are going up on a daily basis,” said Lt. Christopher Sharpe, head of the NYPD human-trafficking team.

Making matters worse, with transactions taking place on a screen, johns are becoming more callous, says James Goward, chief of the Criminal Enterprise Bureau of the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.

“It’s available for you like getting food delivered by Seamless,” he says.

Source

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Backpage.com CEO pleads guilty to human trafficking

April 13, 2018
Documents unsealed today by the Justice Department (PDF) reveal Backpage.com CEO Carl Ferrer pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges in Arizona on April 5th, a day before the site was seized and shut down. Additionally, attorneys general in California and Texas announced today that the site itself has entered a guilty plea to charges of human trafficking in Texas, while Ferrer pleaded guilty to conspiracy and three counts of money laundering in California. Several corporate entities tied to the site, including Backpage.com LLC, also entered guilty pleas to charges of money laundering.

As a part of the deal that will see him serve a maximum of five years in prison, the prosecutors say Ferrer has surrendered the URLs of the site and its data to law enforcement, and that he will cooperate in the prosecution against others involved with the company -- namely co-founders and controlling shareholders Michael Lacey and James Larkin, who were indicted April 9th.

The plea deal includes Ferrer's admission that a majority of the site's ads were for sex services, and that he conspired with others to launder proceeds from the ads after credit card companies and banks wouldn't do business with the site.