Pinoy kids used in Internet pornography - report

MANILA, Philippines - Children from the Philippines, some as young as seven years old, are being used in Internet pornography, a case involving an American national in California bared.

According to a report posted at the US Department of Justice website (http://www.justice.gov/usao/can/press/2011/2011_01_25_snyder.sentenced.press.html), a 47-year-old man from Union City, California has been sentenced to 20 years in jail after he pleaded guilty to charges of producing child pornography.

Donald Snyder conspired “with a woman in the Philippines” who supplied him with live Internet shows of young girls engaging in sexual acts.

The American national entered into a plea bargaining agreement with the District Attorney’s Office wherein he admitted that from Feb. 5-17, 2009, he conspired with a woman in the Philippines, known only by her Internet username “lexenemae_sy,” to produce child pornography.

Initially, Snyder, who had used the Internet name “riccisdad53,” said that he purchased live Internet webcam shows of young girls from lexenemae_sy.

Eventually, lexenemae_sy and Snyder discussed the prospect of forming a business partnership whereby the woman would photograph minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct in the Philippines and then e-mail the images to Snyder for him to sell them in the United States.

To further this business partnership, Snyder said that he wired money to the Philippines so that lexenemae_sy could purchase a digital camera to take the photographs.

According to the plea agreement, soon after Snyder provided the seed money, lexenemae_sy began e-mailing him sexually explicit photographs of girls who were seven, 10, and 14 years old.

At times, Snyder directed the photography sessions by watching lexenemae_sy via his webcam and communicating his instructions for the poses he wanted via instant messaging.

While lexenemae_sy was photographing the young girls, Snyder used the Internet to market the photographs to select individuals.

But on Feb. 18, 2009, before Snyder could widely circulate the images, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed a search warrant for his residence in Union City, which led to his arrest.

The report said that Snyder was indicted by a federal grand jury on Oct. 29, 2009 and was charged with conspiring to produce child pornography, distributing child pornography, and possessing child pornography.

He pleaded guilty to conspiring to produce child pornography on Jan. 25, 2011 and U.S. District Court Judge Saundra Armstrong handed down the sentence.

“Snyder had faced a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 15 years. The terms of his supervised release require Snyder to receive sex offender treatment, register as a sex offender, and avoid all contact with minors,” the report said.

US attorney Melinda Haag said that Snyder has been in custody since his initial appearance in federal court on Nov. 2, 2009 and he will remain in custody and be transferred to a federal institution to serve out his sentence.

The report did not specify whether the “woman in the Philippines” that the American national was dealing with was a Filipina nor did it state whether the young girls were Filipino children.