A Virginia man arrested in a national investigation of child pornography on the Internet pleaded guilty to multiple charges involving the sexual exploitation of boys and the operation of illegal Web sites, the Justice Department said Friday.
According to the New York Times, the man, Gregory J. Mitchel, 38, was an administrator of several illegal Websites and admitted in his plea to producing and distributing child porn through the Internet. In that role, the Justice Department said, Mitchel filmed boys engaging in sex acts and received money from Website subscribers who paid monthly fees for viewing live and recorded videos.
The story said Mitchel was arrested after being implicated by Justin Berry, a 19-year-old who was featured in a December article in The New York Times about teenagers who operate for-pay porn sites that show images of themselves transmitted by Webcams. Mitchel has since begun naming other adult men who were actively involved in the sexual exploitation of children, court records show.
The Times reported that Berry, who beginning at 13 was enticed by adults he met online into performing sex acts in front of his Webcam, operated porn sites featuring his own image for five years. In discussions with a Times reporter in July, Berry agreed to abandon his business and tell law enforcement about adult men who he knew were sexually exploiting and abusing children. Berry was granted immunity and is now a federal witness.
In interviews with The Times and the government, Berry said Mitchel had molested him over several years and had begun sexually exploiting as many as six other children.
At the time of his arrest, Mitchel was days away from escorting an under-age boy to a Las Vegas hotel, according to records of his online conversations. Law enforcement officials said they had recovered more than 600 pornographic images of children on Mitchel's computers, which were seized at the time of his arrest in September.
Through evidence provided to the government, Mr. Berry has identified as many as 1,500 adult men who gave him money and gifts over several years for his sexual performances on camera, according to the story. Mitchel was among a number of adults identified by Berry as having assisted minors in the establishment, operation and marketing of illegal Webcam porn sites.
In a hearing on Friday in Federal District Court in Roanoke, Va., Mitchel pleaded guilty to four felonies involving the production, sale, distribution and possession of child porn. As part of a plea agreement, two related charges involving the receipt and advertising of child pornography were dropped. Because of a previous conviction on a child porn charge, Mitchel faces a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison, the Times reported.
