Cocoa, Florida – In a disturbing case of child exploitation, U.S. District Chief Judge Anne C. Conway has sentenced Phillip Beyel, 28, to 27 years in federal prison for soliciting a minor to have sex and the production of child pornography.
Beyel pleaded guilty on September 25, 2012, for his heinous crimes, which were committed on December 31, 2011.
According to court documents, Beyel sent a text message from his iPhone to the minor victim’s iPhone, soliciting the minor to engage in sex. He then went to the minor’s home, where they went to a nearby hotel. Once inside the hotel room, Beyel had sex with the minor and produced a video of himself engaging in sex with the minor.
On January 1, 2012, during a controlled telephone call between the minor victim and Beyel, they discussed the sexual activity which had taken place on December 31, 2011. During that call, Beyel told the minor victim that if the minor had to go to the doctor, not to say that the injury was caused by the two of them having sex.
A forensic examination of Beyel’s iPhone recovered several videos and photographs depicting sexual acts between Beyel and the minor victim, including the one made on December 31, 2011.
“Homeland Security Investigations and our law enforcement partners are determined to find and arrest individuals who prey on minors,” said Susan McCormick, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations Tampa, which oversees the agency’s Cocoa Beach office that investigated this case.
The case was investigated by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Carlos A. Perez-Irizarry as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.
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Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Category: Sex Crimes|Cybercrime|Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release ↗
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