Officials stated that a bodybuilding coach was arrested Tuesday in Charlottesville, Virginia, for multiple child exploitation offenses.
Court documents indicate that between 2013 and April 2020, Elliott Simon Atwell, 33, of Charlottesville, allegedly enticed and coerced at least six minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct to produce recordings of the conduct.
Atwell also allegedly enticed a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity and possessed images of minors – including prepubescent minors and minors under 12 years of age – engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
Atwell is charged with four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, one count of enticement of a minor, and one count of possession of child pornography.
If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
The FBI is investigating the case.
Trial Attorney Jessica L. Urban of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Melanie Smith for the Western District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.