Man pleads guilty to 'sextorting' at least 25 girls, including at Columbus high school
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A Columbus man pleaded guilty on Wednesday to crimes related to the sexual exploitation of at least 25 victims in at least three states, including girls at a Columbus high school.
As part of a plea agreement, Lorenzo Winfield, 22, pleaded guilty to two charges:
- Possession, distribution and receipt of child pornography
- Extortion for interstate communications
Winfield also faced a count of sexual exploitation of a minor and coercion and enticement of a minor, but those were not mentioned in a news release from Kenneth Parker, the United States Attorney of the Southern District of Ohio. The convicted Columbus man faces 23 to 27 years in prison.
From 2016 to 2021, Winfield used extortion to collect explicit photos of underage girls at the Arts and College Preparatory Academy, where he was known as the "ACPA Hacker," the news release said.
Winfield would contact students at the school and demand nude photos of them, sometimes hacking into the victims’ social media accounts and using the photos he obtained against them. He would also extort the victims by having them send him sexually explicit content in order to regain control of their social media accounts, the news release said.
He would tell the victims he had nude photos of them or other students, and that he would distribute to friends and family unless the victims complied. Winfield followed through with his threats, distributing the sexually explicit photos of his victims to others, according to Parker.
Winfield used accounts on platforms such as Discord, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Skype and Google Hangouts to extort the victims. Winfield was additionally investigated for exploiting at least four victims in Fairfax and Prince William counties in Virginia, and at least one victim in College Station, Texas.
In one instance, Winfield made contact with an 11-year-old girl and sent nude photos of the victim to students at her Virginia middle school. Eventually, as she got older, he sent nude photos of her to students at her high school. The victim originally met Winfield through a social media game. He threatened to harm her family if she did not comply with his requests, and he continued to exploit her up until his arrest.
Parker asked anyone who believed they were a victim of Winfield’s crimes, or anyone with information related to the case, to contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation at 614-849-1733.