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Manassas resident Anthony Benton was sentenced on Wednesday to 16 years in prison for the sexual exploitation of children and receipt of child sexual abuse material after preying on young girls online, federal authorities say.
Prosecutors say that Benton came to their attention when he purchased child sexual abuse material, including videos of children possibly as young as 5 years old, over the Telegram app.
A subsequent search of his home led to grisly results finding that he had also been using the Omegle live video app to produce child pornography since at least 2020.
In total, Benton engaged in sexual live video calls with approximately 1,000 children ranging from the ages of 7 and 17. He also recorded 72 of those videos without his underage victims’ knowledge.
Within these videos, Benton can be seen texting a 10-year-old girl, deceiving her by saying he was 15 years old and then, when she revealed her age, promising their sexual conversation was, “just between us.”
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood.
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