The Online Predator Unmasked | #childpredator | #onlinepredator | #sextrafficing

A 46-year-old man from Sarno pretended to be younger to interact online with a 10-year-old boy and has been sentenced to 4 years and 8 months in prison at the end of a summary trial held before the Gup of the Ancona Court. The man was acquitted of the charge of solicitation but convicted of producing and possessing pornographic material. According to the original charges, the defendant allegedly convinced the victim to take photos of himself and send them at a later time. The postal police acted after a complaint was filed by the boy’s family in July 2022. The incidents in question dated back to the previous month. Investigators conducted a search of the man’s home in Sarno, seizing smartphones, several hard drives, notebooks, pen drives, and memory cards from a camera, along with about a hundred CDs and DVDs. The material was then analyzed to reconstruct how the man interacted with the minor. According to the complaint, the defendant posed as a 23-year-old boy with a fake name, approaching the minor online while the two played Fortnite on the PlayStation console. Later, he contacted him through the Skype messaging system, creating a new profile for the victim. The two continued to communicate through video and audio calls. The man then sent the boy numerous pedopornographic videos and photos, beginning to flatter him and express feelings of affection towards him, eventually asking for photos of the minor without clothes. The defendant faced several aggravating circumstances, such as acting against a person under the age of sixteen using means to prevent identification, like temporary profiles, fictitious identification names, and fake accounts. While analyzing what was found at his home, the police discovered eleven pedopornographic videos and numerous images depicting minors involved in sexual acts, leading to the charge of possession. The man gained the trust of the boy, who lived in a town in the Marche region, by posing as an older youth with a fake name. The initial conversations served to establish a virtual but daily relationship with the minor. The two played Fortnite together, a platform popular among teenagers for years. Once a trust relationship was established with the victim, the defendant obtained a series of photos depicting the boy without clothes. The sentence of 4 years and 8 months in prison concludes the first degree of the investigation, pending the reasons.