East Earl Twp. Man Arrested For Alleged Sexual Abuse Of Children

[Sugar Cookie]

Kenneth Schmidt, 43, is accused of possessing child pornography, criminal solicitation, unlawful contact with a minor, obscene and other sexual materials and performances, corruption of minors and identity theft.

Schmidt allegedly used various social media and internet platforms to “sext” multiple underage females who believed they were communicating with a teenager named “Ben.”

It is alleged that Schmidt displayed profile photos of a young man in order to convince his victims to send sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves.

East Earl Twp. man arrested for alleged sexual abuse of children

An East Earl Township man is charged with sexual abuse of children and five additional charges, according to the East Earl Township Police Department.

www.abc27.com

Jul 18, 2020

A man police said was using social media to spread child pornography is in prison.

Kenneth Schmidt is accused of having hundreds of images and over 100 videos showing child pornography. Investigators also said Schmidt used social media to spread the images.

East Earl Township Police said they received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on June 4 that child pornography was sent from an IP address in East Earl Township.

Police: Man with child pornography videos, photos arrested in East Earl Twp.

EAST EARL, Pa. (WHTM) — A man police said was using social media to spread child pornography is in prison. Kenneth Schmidt is accused of having hundreds of images and over 100 videos showing …

www.abc27.com

 

[Dzaniel]

bwahahahahahha. that second pic though!!!!

 

[Totemic]

Bozo the Clown wants his hair back!

 

[Inferus]

You girls still want to dance half naked on TikTok?

 

[Sejanus]

He gets worse looking in each pic.
Lance that human boil and squeeze all the pus out.

You will be left with...

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Kenneth Lee Schmidt, 46, was sentenced to two and a half to ten years in state prison after he pleaded guilty Wednesday to a total of 49 charges – all felony offenses – including possession of child pornography, dissemination of photographs or film of child sex acts, criminal solicitation of photographs or film of child sex acts, disseminating explicit sexual material of a minor, contact or communication with a minor, corruption of minors, identity theft and criminal use of a communication facility.

Schmidt was also prosecuted federally for similar crimes arising out of this investigation. Schmidt’s local sentence was ordered to run concurrently to 35 years of incarceration imposed on him by the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. That sentence will be followed by 10 years of supervised release.

An attorney representing Schmidt told the court that he is “remorseful” and wants to use programs in the state and federal prison systems to rehabilitate himself.

Schmidt chose not to speak when given the opportunity to do so by the court.

Investigators in Lancaster County began looking into Schmidt in 2020 after receiving a cyber tip that an IP address traced back to Schmidt’s home and a Sadsbury Township restaurant where he worked had shared images of child pornography online in March of that year. Federal investigators had already been looking into Schmidt for similar reasons since 2018.

A search warrant executed at Schmidt’s home yielded hundreds of images and videos of suspected child pornography on his cell phone and desktop computer. Technicians who conducted a forensic analysis of the devices found at least 30 videos of nude children and 76 videos of children engaging in sexual contact.

Schmidt told investigators in a later interview that he had disseminated child pornography online on multiple occasions, adding that he was in possession of “huge” files of child pornography.

When asked by investigators how large his files of child pornography were, Schmidt said he “could scroll through them for the rest of my life and never look at the same image twice.”

Schmidt built the massive collection of child pornography in part by using an alter-ego to communicate with juveniles across the United States in order to encourage them to send him nude images and videos of themselves. The victims, whose ages ranged from 13 to 17, believed they were communicating with a teenage boy named “Ben,” who was in fact Schmidt using an alias.

Investigators were able to identify the real boy whose images Schmidt used for the alter-ego, who was unaware that his likeness had been used. Victims who had communicated with Schmidt were able to identify pictures of the boy as “Ben.”

Schmidt told authorities he had created multiple Instagram accounts posing as “Ben” with the intention of meeting young girls and encouraging them to send nude images and videos of themselves to him

Sourced via CRIMEWATCH®: https://crimewatch.net/us/pa/lancas...ison-after-pleading-guilty-using-online-alter