Louisville Father Sentenced to 17 Years for Sexually Exploiting Indiana Children on Facebook

A Louisville father has been sentenced to 17 years in federal prison for enticing two Indiana children to obtain sexually explicit material via Facebook, prosecutors announced Monday.

Anthony Michael Bentley, 30, of Louisville, pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of making false statements to the FBI, according to the Department of Justice.

According to court documents, Bentley directed and coerced Minor Victim 1, who was 12 years old at the time, to send him sexually explicit images and videos via Facebook Messenger from August 17 to August 22, 2018. He also directed and coerced Minor Victim 2, who was 17 years old at the time, to send him sexually explicit videos via Facebook Messenger from January 2018 through early 2020.

Bentley misrepresented his name, image, and age on Facebook to entice the minor victims to communicate with him. He used the alias “Chris Jones” to hide his true identity and used photos of a young man he found online, identified as Individual 1, without his consent. Bentley also sent nude images of Individual 1 to Minor Victim 1 and claimed that they were pictures of himself. Investigators later learned that Individual 1 was a minor in those photographs.

On March 7, 2020, FBI investigators executed a search warrant at Bentley’s residence in Kentucky. At the time, Bentley told officials he did not have any knowledge of the Facebook account belonging to Chris Jones and claimed that he no longer had his old cell phone. However, investigators located the old cell phone under the carpet of a locked safe inside Bentley’s home. The cell phone contained the evidence and photographs of Individual 1 used on the fake Facebook account.

Investigators discovered that Bentley was using the Chris Jones Facebook account to communicate with females – including the minor victims – all hours of the day, including while his newborn child was sick in the hospital and while he was on family vacations.

U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Myers said, “This supposed family man posed as an attractive teen boy on Facebook to win the trust of underage girls and entice them to send him sexually explicit material—exploiting children as young as just twelve years old for his own gratification.”

Bentley must also pay $10,000 in restitution to the minor victims. The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker. U.S. Attorney Myers thanked Assistant United States Attorneys Adam J. Eakman and MaryAnn T. Mindrum, who prosecuted this case.

This case was brought 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.