CINCINNATI — Child predators across the Tri-State are fueling a surge of explicit content involving children. Experts say it’s becoming more common.
Since 2002, the National Child Victim Identification Program has helped identify more than 19,100 victims of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), or what’s commonly known as child pornography. Since then, the program has reviewed more than 322 million images and videos.
“The internet opens doors to a lot of places, and the dark web is considered dark for a reason,” said U.S. Attorney Kenneth Parker.
Parker said some offenders are seeking younger victims, including babies and toddlers, as well as children under the age of five.
“One of the biggest emerging threats we see is hands-on predators, who are, they’re making videos as well of them touching young kids,” he said.
‘YOU DON’T KNOW THAT IT’S NOT NORMAL’
Survivor Jewell Baraka said she was first trafficked into prostitution in Oregon at 11 years old.
“I described my trafficking in hardcore porn as a nuclear bomb being dropped on my life,” said Baraka. “Everything was impacted.”
At 14, she said she was trafficked into the pornography industry. She said she was placed in the back of a car each night they wanted her.
“You don't know that it's not normal,” she said.
After three years of filming, Baraka said they were “done with her.”
“They've done everything they wanted to do to me, and they want a new girl,” she said, describing it as her first moment of “freedom.”
While the trafficking took place about 30 years ago, Baraka said healing will take a lifetime. She now works as a survivor advocate helping other trafficking victims and is working on a book.
“For the first few years after I got away, when I would catch a weird look from a guy on the street, I would wonder if he saw it,” she said. “That's always a reality for us when our trauma, sexual trauma, has been recorded that way.”
Sean Wheeler told WCPO he used to hate having his photograph taken after he said he was trafficked and used in child sexual abuse material as a child.
“I didn't feel like it belonged to me anymore,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler said he was actively used in a trafficking network in the Midwest for several years, starting when he was 5 years old.
“I was told the first time I was sexually abused, 'OK if you say anything, I'll kill your dog. Your family won't want you,'” Wheeler said. “Those types of comments work on a 5-year-old.”
Wheeler said he has one memory of being used in CSAM when he was 7.
“I got to a place where I just learned I couldn't fight back,” he said.
Wheeler has since founded a nonprofit to help sex-trafficked boys, and is working to combat misconceptions that male children aren’t abused.
“I tell people, ‘The younger you are when you get help, the better,' so that you don't have to go through decades of self-loathing,” he said.
WORKING FOR VICTIMS
When offenders are arrested for CSAM cases, some victims will receive a notification from the government that they have been a victim of a crime. Victims might receive them when their image has been identified in an offender's collection.
“One of these moms came to us and said, ‘What can we do about stopping this onslaught of letters they were getting?’” said attorney Marc Lenahan, who has worked with dozens of victims of CSAM.
Lenahan has worked to intervene in criminal prosecutions to collect restitution for child victims. He would also redirect victim notification letters to his office.
“It's been 10 years or so since that day and those letters have come every single day,” he said. “Every single day with a new arrest, every single day for one client.”
Lenahan said CSAM images spread like “wildfire” and that most of the children reflected in them are still unknown.
“It is so much more violent and unimaginable than ever crossed my mind,” he said. “These are kids that can be 3 months, 6 months old, who may have absolutely no recollection of what they’ve been through.”
WHO ARE THE OFFENDERS?
Court records show many CSAM cases are prosecuted in federal courts because evidence crosses state lines, and tips are often referred to federal law enforcement. In fiscal year 2022, 1,435 offenders were sentenced in child pornography cases in federal court across the country.
Attorney Brad Moermond represents individuals suspected of CSAM offenses.
“I've had individuals who (are) struggling (with) mental health issues,” Moermond said. “I also have had individuals that, if you looked at them, completely normal, law-abiding lives. You wouldn't know anything about any of their history until these things come to light.”
Moermond said there’s an online community for offenders that includes chat services.
“Some people find companionship with other people who have this sort of unnatural behavior,” Moermond said.
“You have individuals who go into these various chat rooms and platforms and they discuss their foul behavior and how they can interact with one another and trade images like trading baseball cards,” Parker said.
Moermond said he’s seen an uptick in individuals receiving child pornography charges in his practice since COVID-19.
“I think once COVID hit, everyone was locked in, especially individuals with other mental health concerns,” Moermond said. “There's a lot of behavior that appeared.”
CRACKING DOWN
“We see it in the urban, suburban,” said Richard Ruggieri, FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge for the Cincinnati Field Office. “Rural areas aren't immune to it either. With the internet and a phone, it’s all over.”
Ruggieri says suspects are often flagged through tips, as well as though metadata in files.
“Technology today or last week or a year ago is different than it is today,” Ruggieri said. “It’s different than there's going to be a year from now. We're constantly chasing that technology in our investigations.”
Ruggieri said there's been a rise in 'sextortion' cases too, where someone is blackmailed into providing sexual material.
He said the FBI runs into challenges when victims are hesitant to come forward because they are "ashamed or "embarrassed."
LOCAL CASES
WCPO reviewed dozens of CSAM cases across the Tri-State. While every case has unique details, WCPO found a wide variety in CSAM sentences. Some offenders were sentenced to decades behind bars, while others received probation.
In one case in Boone County, a man pleaded guilty to seven counts of distributing CSAM and four counts of possession.
A judge sentenced him to eight years in prison, but probated the sentence for five years, allowing him to remain in the community.
According to court records, Ryan Guilfoyle shared more than 100 videos with an undercover investigator. In court, prosecutors said victims in the case were as young as 4 years old.
WCPO obtained an audio recording of the moment he was confronted by Boone County Sheriff’s officials.
“I got this laptop,” he said, as a sheriff’s detective and his partner executed a search warrant at his home. “I started going on and looking at like Torrent, old stuff that I used to, and then I ran into a couple like videos that were not … it was basically child pornography is what it was.”
Guilfoyle’s attorney said Guilfoyle was looking for adult pornography, but child pornography popped up.
“I'm actually happy that this is such a quick response due to something like that,” he said. “Because there are f------ weird people out there.”
Guilfoyle’s attorney told WCPO said Guilfoyle looked at it but did not know he was sharing it.
He pleaded guilty in court, agreeing to a plea deal in which prosecutors recommended he serve time behind bars.
Instead, Boone County Judge Richard Brueggemann sentenced him to eight years in prison, but probated the sentence, allowing him to remain in the community on probation.
“Only a demon would want to do something that like that to a child,” Brueggemann said in court. “I think I've explained where the court's at in its posture and how it views this. I am not prepared to say that you cannot be safe … safely and effectively supervised in the community."
Brueggemann explained he reviewed other cases from the circuit and looked at Guilfoyle’s criminal history to make his decision.
If Guilfoyle's probation is revoked, his attorney said he will be sent to prison.
WCPO reached out to Judge Brueggemann about the case, but his office said he was unable to comment.
SOLVING THE PROBLEM
Lenahan said sentencing offenders is key to stopping the problem.
“The poison is the solution also in this case,” he said. “In the same way that they share images of these children, they also share word of ‘Wow, people who are distributing these images are getting sued. They're getting arrested.’”
Other experts said solving the broader problem will take more than playing “whack-a-mole” sentencing individual offenders.
Moermond pushed for treatment as a way offenders can avoid repeat behavior after their sentence is complete.
“I would say, most, if not all, of my clients — current and former — have expressed not originally wanting to experience this,” he said. “Getting the necessary help, the necessary treatment is key.”
Parker said there must be increased communication between law enforcement agencies, as well as schools and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
“Communicate with the schools about things that teachers should look for,” he said.
He said parents should be involved in their child's online and in-person activities. Ruggieri agreed.
“I think if we try to educate the public and parents and try to stop it at that sign of it, then I think if we have a handful less victims that are extorted by somebody,” Ruggieri said. “Then there's a handful of less images that are out on the internet somewhere.
Baraka said there must be more accountability in the laws that govern the pornography industry.
“The truth is that the porn industry has a million little corners,” said Baraka. “They always make you paste on a smile, but that doesn't mean that you weren't traumatized. I ended up almost every night in porn, shaking on the floor, barely able to stand at the end of the night, so that smile in the final scene doesn't mean that you are happy.”
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