A father of two has been caught in an online porn operation in which he allegedly lured teenage girls from across the country into chatrooms before getting them to strip naked.
In one instance, a girl from from Oakland County, Michigan was tricked into posing nude on a webcam for men pretending to be teenage boys.
Christian Maire, 39, a married dad from Binghamton, New York, was charged with numerous pornography crimes after his home was raided on Monday while his wife and kids were at home.
Christian Maire, 39, is accused of being the leader of a group of individuals who used a social media to produce and share child pornography
One of the girls who was allegedly caught up in the porn ring was a 14-year-old girl with whom Marie had numerous explicit conversations with.
The girl who is now 16, told the FBI how the online scam worked, according to the Detroit Free Press.
While visiting an online chat room, the teenage girls would be chatted to by other men pretending to be teenage boys.
She stated that she had ‘consistently’ been in a chat room with four to five individuals whom she believed to be other male teenagers.
The people who were present then tried to get her to show them her naked body and perform sexually explicit acts while on a webcam.
Maire’s home was searched by FBI officials while his wife and two young children were present
In reality, at the other end of the keyboard would be predatory men whose end game would be to try to get the girls to engage in some form of sexual activity.
Once the girls were in the chat room and they were made aware that other teenage boys were online, videos of other male teenagers would be sent to the girls and played for them, acting as though it was boys of a similar age acting for the camera, in real time.
Maire, who was arrested on Monday was allegedly a member of the group whose primary role was to recruit teenage girls using social media websites as ‘hunting ground’.
He would send pictures and videos to the teenagers pretending to be a teenage boy and send the girls links to chatrooms.
Maire ‘voluntarily spoke’ with FBI agents and confessed to visiting websites that had child pornography.
It has since been determined that he exploited at least 50 teens and preteens nationwide across the country.
The FBI have rounded up at least six other men in the Detroit area who have all been indicted on charges of running a child exploitation enterprise.
Maire, meanwhile, has been charged with five child pornography crimes.