A transgender-identifying man was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted for producing child pornography, according to a Department of Justice press release.
Thirty-five-year-old Joseph Downing Barnes Jr. "exposed his breasts" to boys during online webcam chat sessions in order to get them to perform sexual acts that he could record, the DOJ said.
Investigators found 74 videos and four images of child pornography on his phone and found more on his online accounts.
Barnes is from Virginia and was arrested in August.
The boys were ages approximately 10 to 15 years old and were made to believe that Barnes was a biological female, the DOJ said in the press release.
Barnes saved the recorded webchats to his Google account, according to the statement of facts signed by the defendant and his attorney.
This was not the first time he was arrested for crimes related to child sex abuse material. In 2016, he was convicted in the Eastern District of Virginia for trading child sex abuse videos on the Kik application.
Investigators found 74 videos and four images of child pornography on his phone and found more on his online accounts, according to a DOJ press release from December 2016.
He was sentenced to nine years in prison in that case as well as 25 years of supervised release.
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Barnes was identified by law enforcement in 2016 after a man named Justin Clark was found to be trading child porn online. Barnes was one of the people who traded the media with Clark.
Clark was sentenced to six years in prison at the time.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation recommends that parents of young children actively monitor their online activity or restrict their online use to avoid the threat from online predators.
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