Jefferson County Man Admits Sextortion of Arkansas Teen

ST. LOUIS - A man from Jefferson County, Missouri on Wednesday admitted requesting and receiving child sexual abuse material from a teen and then forcing her to produce more.

David Paeper, 20, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of receiving child pornography. He admitted meeting a 15-year-old girl on Instagram and requesting and receiving sexually explicit images of her. When she later refused his request for more images, he threatened to send the initial explicit images to her mother unless she produced more.

The Rogers (Arkansas) Police Department traced Paeper's Instagram account and the St. Louis County Police Department found and interviewed Paeper. They also found images of the teen on Paeper's phone.

Paeper is scheduled to be sentenced on December 1. The charge is punishable by five to 20 years in prison.

The Rogers (Arkansas) Police Department and the St. Louis County Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.