Social media has become an indispensable part of most teenagers' lives. Their feverish fixation with the medium has made them easy targets for criminals, particularly sexual predators. Serving as an example of such rampant online abuse of youngsters, a US Armed Forces veteran was sentenced to 17 and a half years in prison for sexual exploitation of teenage boys on social media.
Cash Otradovec, 31, from Madison, Wisconsin, was sentenced on Friday for using minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct and making them take pictures and videos of the acts. His prison sentence will be followed by 15 years of supervised release. Otradovec had pleaded guilty to the charge on 9 December 2021.
Posing as Female College Students
According to court documents, the FBI in Miami was contacted by a concerned father in May 2020. He reported that an unknown individual had used multiple social media platforms to acquire nude images from his son, who was 15-years-old at the time.
The authorities learnt that a KiK account with the username 'Becky' and an Instagram account with the profile name 'Callie' had been corresponding with the minor boy. Through additional investigation, the officers tied the two accounts to Otradovec.
The veteran was interrogated in October 2020, during which he confessed to creating the two social media accounts. It was also found that the Instagram account dated back to 2006. He posed as Becky and Callie (utilizing the two accounts), two college students who were friends.
Exploiting and Threatening Teenagers
Using the two personas, Otradovec corresponded with six different boys between the ages of 15 and 17. He deceived these minors and made them send sexually explicit images of themselves. If the boys refused to create the kind of videos that he wanted them to or share additional pictures, he was persistent and threatened to send the images to their followers.
In spite of the boys' pleas, he was relentless in his pursuit. During one such instance, one of the victims pleaded with him and said, "I'm literally going to kill myself." However, instead of yielding, Otradovec posed as Callie and tried to convince the boy that sharing the image sought was the only way of making his ordeal end.
More than Minimum Sentence
During Otradovec's sentencing, James D. Peterson, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, called the crime a "very cruel exploitation of the minors". He stated that the wicked intention of exploiting the minors was the heart of the misdeed.
Judge Peterson also noted that it was not a case of one moment of bad judgment, rather ongoing and continuous conduct that terrorized and humiliated the victims. He also highlighted that the 31-year-old had served his country as a soldier and was close to his family, yet led a double life.
Otradovec faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison. However, Judge Peterson ruled that the seriousness of the veteran's crime warranted a longer punishment and sentenced him to 17 and a half years in prison.
