This case begins with 39 year old Joshua Henry Punt who lives in Washington State. He is charged with:
PRODUCTION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
ENTICEMENT OF A MINOR
DISTRIBUTION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
ADVERTISEMENT OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
Joshua Punt was a serial sextortionist with eight young female victims ranging from 12 yrs to 16 yrs old. The victims were from all over the U.S. Mr. Punt used Kik and Snapchat to connect with the innocent girls and he used photos and videos from You Tube to pretend to be a good-looking young guy. He would seduce the girls into sending illicit photos and he used a second phone to record videos the girls were sending.
Once the girls began to be reluctant to send more photos, he would threaten them with posting the previous images online and share them with their friends, teachers, coaches, family and schools. He would demand more photos and more explicit photos.
Mr. Punt was not only sextorting these young girls, but he was also an administrator of a child pornography ring where the participants were pressured into sending weekly illicit photos of young people. He demanded new members share content and banned users that failed to share child pornography. He also shared the photos he obtained through threatening his young victims with a large number of other pedophiles in the ring.
One of the victims, a 15 yr. old girl in New York finally refused to send any more photos in spite of his threats and told her parents. Together they reported the case in New York. Once Law Enforcement became involved, they were able to identify the pedophile as Joshua Punt in Washington State and subsequently arrested, prosecuted and sentenced him. The brave actions of this young girl resulted in stopping the online sexual exploitation of many other young girls across the U.S.
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Please note: A criminal complaint, an arrest, or an indictment is a formal accusation or allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. A defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted through due process of law.
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