Matthew K. Walsh, Sex Crimes, Maryland 2023

Baltimore Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Federal Prison for Sex Crimes

A Baltimore man has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for using female aliases on social media and messaging applications to entice boys to send him sexually explicit images and videos.

Matthew K. Walsh, 25, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander on [date] to 20 years in federal prison, followed by 30 years of supervised release, for sexual exploitation of a minor in order to produce child pornography.

According to the plea agreement, from at least 2016 through 2021, Walsh created fictitious profiles on several online platforms posing as a minor female to make contact with minor males between the ages of 12 and 17 to induce them to produce sexually explicit images and videos to send to the purported minor female.

Once Walsh obtained the sexually explicit images and videos, he extorted the minor males into producing more sexually explicit images and videos at his instruction and threatened that if they failed to do so, Walsh would send the previously provided images and videos to the minor victims’ friends, family, and classmates.

Walsh admitted that he harassed some of the victims for years and obtained hundreds of files depicting sexually explicit conduct from some of the victims. In total, Walsh obtained approximately 2000 images and videos depicting sexually explicit conduct of the various minor males.

As part of his sentence, Walsh is also required to pay restitution to the victims.

The 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.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/baltimore-man-sentenced-20-years-federal-prison-using-female-aliases-social-media-and