OnlyFans consumer pleads responsible in youngster pornography case

Oct 8 – A New York man who posted a intercourse video of a 16-year-old woman on the adults-only web site OnlyFans pleaded responsible in federal courtroom to at least one depend of distributing youngster pornography.

Matthew Richardson, 36, faces 5 to twenty years in jail and a $250,000 advantageous when he’s sentenced on Dec. 19. The plea settlement was reached in August.

Richardson’s legal professional and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York, which prosecuted the case, declined to remark till after sentencing.

Richardson’s case was cited in a Reuters investigation in July about complaints to police that youngster intercourse abuse materials was featured on OnlyFans.

Richardson was arrested at a freeway relaxation cease in Ohio in Dec. 2022 after working off with the New York teen. The two had met at a grocery retailer and started a sexual relationship. Soon after, Richardson recorded himself having intercourse with the woman. On Nov. 9, 2022, he posted the kid sexual abuse video on his OnlyFans account beneath the pseudonym Skylar Ravenwood, in keeping with plea paperwork filed within the case.

“It was a nightmare,” a relative of the woman informed Reuters, which is withholding the particular person’s title to guard the teenager’s identification. “She’s nonetheless not doing good.”

The Reuters investigation recognized 30 complaints in U.S. police and courtroom data that youngster sexual abuse materials appeared on OnlyFans between December 2019 and June 2024. The investigation cited greater than 200 express movies and pictures of youngsters on the positioning, together with some adults having oral intercourse with toddlers.

OnlyFans didn’t touch upon Richardson’s case. His OnlyFans account remained out there on the platform for greater than a yr and a half after he posted the underage intercourse video. As of mid-June, the video that includes the woman appeared to have been eliminated. The account was shut down after Reuters requested OnlyFans in regards to the case.

OnlyFans says no youngsters are allowed on its web site and that it vets all content material and swiftly removes and studies any youngster sexual abuse materials. The firm additionally says it could deactivate accounts that violate its guidelines.

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