Ankeny man gets 30 years for exploiting minors in online chatrooms
An Ankeny man who encouraged underage children to engage in sexual behavior in online video chats will serve 30 years in prison, the statutory maximum.
Kyle Tremblay, 30, was sentenced Nov. 22. He pleaded guilty in April to a single count of producing child porn.
Tremblay had been charged in 2021 with eight federal offenses for production, receipt and transmission of child pornography. According to court filings, he interacted with at least four underage victims, some of whom were preteens, in online video forums, and encouraged them to commit sex acts that he then recorded.
Chat records show Tremblay was aware of the minors' ages, and in other messages recovered by investigators he spoke of a desire to have sex with underage children.
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Tremblay also was accused of amassing what prosecutors called a "particularly horrific" collection of child porn, with more than 2,000 images and 350 videos found on his cell phone.
In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors urged the court to impose the 30-year maximum.
"Tremblay’s conduct was extensive. It was repeated. His active interaction and production of material involved multiple preteen kids," Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Kerndt wrote. "And Tremblay’s own words — memorialized in his online chats with other pedophiles — indicate that Tremblay has an acute desire to sexually abuse preteens in-person."
Tremblay's attorney did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
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Prosecutors say at least one of Tremblay's encounters with a child took place on the video chat platform Omegle. Courthouse News Service reports that Omegle is currently the subject of an appeal in a federal case filed by the parents of a girl who an adult user of the platform coerced into removing her clothes while he recorded video.
In the case, a lower court ruled that under federal law, an internet service platform is not legally responsible for what users say and do. But the parents through their attorney maintain the site is "knowingly assisting, facilitating, or supporting sex trafficking," an accusation an attorney for the site denies.
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Child exploitation in online video chats gets Ankeny man 30 years
