Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (b)
HONOLULU – Casey Young, 4o, of Kaneohe, Hawaii was sentenced on July 10, 2024, by Senior United States District Judge Helen Gillmor to 188 months in prison and a lifetime of supervised release as a registered sex offender for distributing child pornography. Young previously pleaded guilty in on December 14, 2023.
According to information produced to the court, by at least January 2023, Young was an avid user of multiple end-to-end encrypted messaging applications that he had downloaded on his cellphone and other devices. Using an anonymous screen name, at the time of his arrest in September 2023, Young was part of over 75 groups that involved other anonymous individuals who shared images and videos of child pornography and messaged about child pornography and child sex abuse. Each group or room in which Young was a member catered to a particular type of child pornography, ranging all ages and genders. As a member of a room, that individual generally had access to all the child pornography that was shared in the room from other members.
Generally, for entry into any child pornography room, an individual had to be vetted first by a moderator of the room and share with the moderator at least two images or videos of child pornography on theme with the room. Among other things, a moderator of a room had control over vetting, adding new members, and removing members from rooms for lurking, that is, not sharing enough child pornography over a period of time. Young moderated over a dozen rooms across two encrypted applications. Young also downloaded thousands of images and videos of child pornography onto his devices. In January and March 2023, an undercover FBI agent on one of the applications observed Young distribute child pornography videos in two different rooms.
“This conduct is another confirmation of sexual predators utilizing social media to exploit children, as well as storing pornographic images on electronic media,” said U.S. Attorney Clare E. Connors. “The law provides substantial prison terms for sexual exploitation of children, and such a penalty was appropriately imposed in this case.”
“This sentence should serve notice to others that the FBI does not tolerate those who prey on our keiki,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Steven Merrill. “We take these types of cases seriously and will do whatever it takes to bring child predators to justice.”
This investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Perlmutter handled the prosecution.