Baltimore, Maryland – Matthew K. Walsh, 24, of Baltimore, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to sexually exploiting a minor to produce child pornography. Specifically, Walsh admitted that he created fictitious online profiles pretending to be a female minor in order to contact and induce male minors between the ages of 12 and 17 to send sexually explicit images and videos to the individual they believed to be a minor female, but it was, in fact, Walsh.
The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, Erek L. Barron; Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Sobocinski of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Office; and Commissioner Michael Harrison of the Baltimore Police Department.
According to his plea agreement, from at least 2016 to 2021, Walsh created fictitious profiles on several online platforms posing as a female minor to contact male minors between the ages of twelve and seventeen to encouraging them to produce sexually explicit images and videos. send to alleged female minor. After Walsh received the sexually explicit images and videos, he blackmailed the male minors into producing more sexually explicit images and videos at his direction and threatened that if they did not do so, Walsh would send the images and videos to them. before the minor victims. friends, family and classmates. Walsh instructed the male minors to send him images and videos that he directed them to produce, and that the images and videos had to include their faces.
In some of the communications, by text, email and video, the minor victims cry and beg Walsh not to send the images and videos to their families and classmates, to leave them alone and not make them do any more much, but Walsh. continued with his threats and demands. Walsh admitted that he molested some of the victims for years and received hundreds of files describing explicit sexual behavior from some of the victims. In total, Walsh obtained approximately 2,000 images and videos depicting explicit sexual behavior of various male minors.
As detailed in the plea agreement, once Walsh received the sexually explicit files from the victims, he stored them in folders under false names or a variant of the victim’s real name in a cloud storage account. Walsh also uploaded files of male minors to various Twitter accounts and sold sexually explicit files of minors to others, making approximately $8,000 from the sale of the files. Specifically, Walsh communicated with at least 50 different Twitter users interested in purchasing individual child sexual abuse material (CSAM) files, or Walsh’s CSAM “collections.” The “collections” contained over 100 different victim files. In some messages, Twitter users were aware that some of the individuals in the sexually explicit files were under the age of 14. Several Twitter users exchanged “tips” with Walsh on how to evade law enforcement and discussed methods for luring and extorting nude images and videos of victims. Walsh was also a member of online groups involving other offenders who would post, sell and trade CSAM.
During the investigation, federal search warrants were executed on 17 Google accounts, 22 Twitter accounts, 4 Facebook accounts, 7 Instagram accounts, 6 Snap accounts, 3 Dropbox accounts, 3 TextNow accounts, one Kik account, one Apple account, and one Oath / Yahoo! account, all created and used by Walsh. To date over 40 male minors have been positively identified as victims of Walsh’s conduct. At least 30 photographs and videos of the victims were sold and/or distributed to others by Walsh.
Walsh faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a maximum of 30 years in federal prison for producing child pornography. As required by his plea agreement, Walsh will make full restitution to all minor victims of his crimes for all charges charged, regardless of whether or not he has entered a guilty plea to those charges. As a result of Walsh’s conviction, upon his release from prison, Walsh will be required to register as a sex offender in the state where he resides, is an employee, and is a student, pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA ). ). U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander has scheduled sentencing for November 4, 2022 at 11:00 a.m.
This case was filed as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Child Exploitation Section and Criminal Division, Project Safe Childhood directs federal, state and local resources to find, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the “Resources” tab on the left side of the page.
United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the FBI and the Baltimore Police Department for their work in the investigation and thanked the Noblesville, Indiana Police Department for its assistance. Mr. Barron thanked Assistant US Attorneys Judson T. Mihok and Paul E. Budlow, who are prosecuting the federal case.
For more information on the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, its priorities and the resources available to assist the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-childhood and https://www. justice.gov/usao -md/community-outreach.
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