Police in Stony Point, New York, arrested a middle school student following a months-long investigation into a sexual extortion scheme they say could have hundreds of victims.
The Stony Point Police Department started its investigation in February, when Fieldstone Middle School students went to staff after being victims of coercion as part of the alleged scheme, police said in a release Wednesday.
The victims were male students who exchanged sexually explicit material believing they were communicating with a female on social media. Instead, the person on the other side was also male and demanded payment to keep the content from getting out, police said.
“They were requested for pictures, videos of themselves, to be sent and then they were requested that if they didn’t send more that the pictures and videos would be sent to their friend groups,” Stony Point Police Det. Andrew Kryger told New York City’s WABC-TV.
Police arrested the suspect, who did not return to school for the fall semester, after he returned from abroad, Mr. Kryger told WABC-TV.
The police said six victims have come forward so far, but also said there are “potentially several hundred additional victims who may not yet have reported their experiences.”
The suspect, whom police did not publicly identify, is charged with use of a child in a sexual performance, promoting a sexual performance by a child and possessing material of a sexual performance by a child, the Stony Point Police Department said.
