A Virginia man was sentenced Wednesday to 16 years in prison for the sexual exploitation of children and possessing child sexual abuse pornography, according to officials.
According to court documents, Anthony Benton, 21, formerly of Manassas, came to the attention of law enforcement when he bought child sexual abuse material, including videos depicting the sexual abuse of children who appear to be as young as five years old, over Telegram.
Law enforcement executed a search warrant at his home and discovered that Benton had used Omegle, a live-streaming video application, to regularly produce child sexual abuse material for about three years beginning in 2020.
Benton engaged in sexual conversations in live video calls with approximately 1,000 girls aged 7 to 17 years old. In some of those calls, he enticed the girls to engage in sexually explicit conduct.
He screen-recorded and saved approximately 72 videos without the minor victims’ knowledge.
One of the videos shows Benton texting a 10-year-old minor to deceive her into believing that he was 15 years old. When she revealed her age, Benton promised their conversation was “just between us.”
HSI investigated the case.
Trial Attorney McKenzie Hightower of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Justice Department.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.