YouTube star Austin Jones who is famous for his Capella renditions of pop songs was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday for demanding sexual content from minor girls. He was persuading six girls, as young as 14 years old, to produce and send videos to “prove” they were his “biggest fan.”
Jones was charged with child pornography in 2017, though rumors indicate that he had been behaving inappropriately with his young fans several years before. As early as in 2015, several young girls have been reporting Jones asking them to send videos of them twerking and saying things that made them uncomfortable.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Neff Welsh said in a sentencing memo “Production and receipt of child pornography are extraordinarily serious offenses that threaten the safety of our children and communities,”. “Jones’s actions took something from his victims and their families that they will never be able to get back.”
Prosecutors have also said that Jones enticed his victims to send their illicit material on the pretext of modeling opportunities and promising them followers on social media.
“Today’s sentencing of Austin Jones represents a major step towards justice for the young victims whom he manipulated and exploited,” Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent-in-Charge James Gibbons said in a statement.
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