A Virginia man arrested in a national investigation of child pornography on the Internet pleaded guilty to multiple charges involving the sexual exploitation of boys and the operation of illegal Web sites, the Justice Department said Friday.
The man, Gregory J. Mitchel, 38, was an administrator of several illegal Web sites and admitted in his plea to producing and distributing child pornography through the Internet. In that role, the Justice Department said, Mr. Mitchel filmed boys engaging in sex acts and received money from Web site subscribers who paid monthly fees for viewing live and recorded videos.
Mr. Mitchel was arrested after being implicated by Justin Berry, a 19-year-old who was featured in a December article in The New York Times about teenagers who operate for-pay pornography sites that show images of themselves transmitted by Webcams. Mr. Mitchel has since begun naming other adult men who were actively involved in the sexual exploitation of children, court records show.
Mr. Berry, who beginning at 13 was enticed by adults he met online into performing sex acts in front of his Webcam, operated pornography sites featuring his own image for five years. In discussions with a Times reporter in July, Mr. Berry agreed to abandon his business and tell law enforcement about adult men who he knew were sexually exploiting and abusing children. Mr. Berry was granted immunity and is now a federal witness.
In interviews with The Times and the government, Mr. Berry said Mr. Mitchel had molested him over several years and had begun sexually exploiting as many as six other children.
At the time of his arrest, Mr. Mitchel was days away from escorting an under-age boy to a Las Vegas hotel, according to records of his online conversations. Law enforcement officials said they had recovered more than 600 pornographic images of children on Mr. Mitchel's computers, which were seized at the time of his arrest in September.
Through evidence provided to the government, Mr. Berry has identified as many as 1,500 adult men who gave him money and gifts over several years for his sexual performances on camera. Mr. Mitchel was among a number of adults identified by Mr. Berry as having assisted minors in the establishment, operation and marketing of illegal Webcam pornography sites.
In a hearing on Friday in Federal District Court in Roanoke, Va., Mr. Mitchel pleaded guilty to four felonies involving the production, sale, distribution and possession of child pornography. As part of a plea agreement, two related charges involving the receipt and advertising of child pornography were dropped. Because of a previous conviction on a child pornography charge, Mr. Mitchel faces a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison.
Mr. Mitchel first encountered Mr. Berry as a member of one of the teenager's pornographic Web sites and began communicating with him through online instant messaging. Soon after, Mr. Mitchel traveled to Mexico to meet Mr. Berry, then 16, and molested him, officials said.
More than a year later, Mr. Berry tried to abandon his illegal business, but Mr. Mitchel had preserved many of the teenagers' pornographic videos and images, posting them on new sites he established. For months, Mr. Mitchel encouraged Mr. Berry to return to the pornography business and posted periodic updates about his efforts on a Yahoo message board he set up for the teenager's fans.
Early last year, Mr. Berry, who by then was abusing both cocaine and marijuana, agreed to become business partners with Mr. Mitchel on a new site called justinsfriends.com that the older man had registered. The site, which charged members $29.95 a month for password-protected access, went fully active in early June.
Over the weeks that followed, numerous pornographic videos of Mr. Berry and other young men and boys were posted on it. But less than a month after the site went up, Mr. Berry left the business and reported Mr. Mitchel to the authorities.