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Press Release
A Lemon Grove, California resident, and a Harrodsburg, Kentucky resident were convicted today of multiple child exploitation crimes, including conspiracy offenses, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania after a seven-day jury trial, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney David J. Freed of the Middle District of Pennsylvania and Deputy Executive Associate Director Derek Benner of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
William Staples, 57, a resident of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, was found guilty of conspiracy to advertise child pornography; conspiracy to receive/distribute child pornography and aiding and abetting the receipt/distribution of child pornography.
Dylan Heatherly, 34, a student in Lemon Grove, California, was found guilty of conspiracy to receive/distribute child pornography and aiding and abetting the receipt/distribution of child pornography.
A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.
“Today’s verdicts mark the latest chapter in the Department’s unwavering commitment to targeting dangerous child sex offenders,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Cronan. “The prosecution of the 15 individuals in this case, many of whom were responsible for the reprehensible sexual abuse of a six-year-old child on a live-streaming, video-conferencing platform, resulted in 15 fewer child predators on our streets. We will continue to work closely with our domestic and foreign law enforcement partners to identify and punish child sex offenders who seek to use technological means to commit their heinous crimes.”
“The production and distribution of child sexual abuse material is a horrific crime that can negatively affect victims for their entire lives,” said HSI Deputy Executive Associate Director Benner. “ICE agents are committed to aggressively investigating these crimes to ensure that child predators can’t maintain anonymity behind emerging online platforms and complicated criminal schemes.”
According to trial evidence, between April 11, 2014 and May 11, 2016, Staples, Heatherly, and 12 co-conspirators located in different states worked together and with others to create a secure space on a video conferencing website where like-minded individuals could regularly live-stream videos of child pornography of prepubescent children, some as young as infants, to each other in an effort to minimize any evidence of such child pornography being located on their individual devices. In addition to streaming pre-recorded videos of child pornography, on July 22, 2015, an undercover Toronto Police Detective Constable observed a six-year-old child being sexually abused live via video conference for everyone in the secure space to see. Many individuals commented on and encouraged the sexual abuse of the child in real time. The following day, on July 23, 2015, law enforcement rescued the child and arrested co-conspirator William Augusta who had been sexually abusing the child.
In May 2016, 15 individuals were charged in an 18-count superseding indictment by a grand jury in the Middle District of Pennsylvania with multiple child exploitation offenses, many of which related to 14 co-conspirators’ involvement in using the video conferencing website to produce, advertise, distribute, and/or receive child pornography. Twelve of the defendants pleaded guilty prior to trial:
HSI, the Toronto Police Service, the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office, and the North Middleton Police Department investigated the case with assistance from CEOS’s High Technology Investigative Unit. Trial Attorney Austin M. Berry of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith Taylor of the Middle District of Pennsylvania are prosecuting the case.
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 http://www.justice.gov/psc.