ATLANTA—A sexual predator who extorted nine girls within a six months time was sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison for extortion, distribution of child pornography and possession of pornography, officials said Wednesday.
Destin Whitmore, 23, of Canton, Georgia used a social media site, where he maintained two fake aliases as well as a personal account, to entice and then force nine minors to provide him pornographic images of them, authorities said.
“This case is a sad example of the dangers of the Internet for teens that aren’t careful,” said Acting U.S. Attorney John Horn. “This defendant victimized at least nine teenage girls by using their images to extort pornographic images, creating a vicious cycle of exploiting vulnerable victims.”
According to Acting U.S. Attorney Horn, this is the evidence presented in court:
- In April 2012, a girl in Arizona reported that she had been contacted on Facebook by an individual using the profile name “Ralph Jenkins.”
- The individual using the Jenkins profile, later identified as Destin Whitmore, sent the teen compromising images of herself that she had previously sent to Whitmore.
- He threatened to send those images to other persons, including her family members, if she did not immediately create additional images for him.
- An investigation show that Whitmore used the name “Lenny Carlington,” to send pornographic images of numerous teen girls to the girls in order to extort them for more images.
- He threatened to distribute the pornographic images to others and post them on various websites for public consumption if they did not comply with his demands.
- Whitmore knew many of the girls through personal relationships or through long-term communications using web cameras with the girls online.
- Some of the girls had previously sent sexually explicit images to Whitmore or had provided such images to others, which Whitmore subsequently obtained.
- The investigation revealed that Whitmore extorted at least nine minors over a period of six months.
This case was investigated by the FBI and Cobb County Police Department.