Delaware man groomed, sexually coerced Wayne girl online, attorneys say
A 27-year-old Bear, Delaware, man has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Delaware on charges of production of child pornography and coercion and enticement of a minor.
The man was previously charged in October with the kidnapping and endangerment of the same child by a judge in Passaic County, New Jersey.
Court documents unsealed Tuesday by the Department of Justice say Darius Matylewich kidnapped the 11-year-old girl from Wayne, New Jersey, in September after grooming her online and coercing her to produce child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, for him.
The initial charges in New Jersey did not mention the coercion or sexual abuse. If he is convicted on these new charges, he faces between 15 years and life in prison, the Department of Justice said.
Matylewich met the 11-year-old through the online video game Roblox, the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office said. Recently released court records show that the conversation then progressed onto social media platforms like Discord, TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook, where the 27-year-old coerced the girl to produce child sexual abuse material for him.
A search of Matylewich's phone revealed that the man's iPhone was pinpointed outside the girl's home on July 29, court records show. The same search showed the phone near or inside the girl's home and, later, the hotel where she was staying on seven different days, with the last time being the day he kidnapped her.
Throughout this month and a half, the man regularly searched for pornography based on animated children's shows and movies, according to court documents, as well as questions related to pregnancy.
Patterns of grooming, coercion
Matylewich, like many abusers, employed grooming tactics to coerce the 11-year-old to meet with him in person and create this material for him, federal prosecutors said.
The man "took advantage of the child's unstable family situation," according to a memorandum from prosecutors, and convinced her that she was "in love" with him. He regularly told the girl that he loved her and guilt-tripped her, court records show. He also gave her gifts, like Roblox gift cards, and suggested she could pay him back with sexual favors.
When the girl agreed to send him explicit photos or videos, court records say, the man would screen-record the messages and videos, unbeknownst to the girl, and save them to a password-protected folder on his phone.
"The degree of psychological harm that the Defendant caused the Victim cannot be overstated," wrote U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss.
From online chats to abduction
The 11-year-old girl disappeared from the Wayne hotel room in which she and her family were living on the morning of Sept. 10. Her mother was at work, court documents say, and her brother saw her leave with a backpack and thought she was heading to school.
In reality, the 11-year-old had gotten into Matylewich's car and was driven to his home in Bear.
The Wayne Police Department was called to investigate but couldn't find the child on any cameras or in nearby businesses. The girl's mother told police that her daughter had disappeared for a few hours in June to meet with a man she met online, and said she believed the girl might be with him again.
The Wayne Police Department found Matylewich's phone number and address in Delaware, according to court records. They called the man and, "surprisingly," he picked up. Officers talked to the man for over half an hour, court documents say, and he admitted that he had picked up the girl from the hotel and taken her to his home in Bear.
He claimed that he thought the girl was 13, not 11, and denied a sexual relationship. While on the phone with the man, Wayne police contacted the New Castle County Police Department, who went to the house the man shared with his mother.
When officers knocked on the door, Matylewich came out holding his cellphone, still on the phone with Wayne police.
The girl was found safely inside and taken to the hospital, according to court records. Both she and Matylewich continuously denied any sexual contact.
Larger trends in CSAM, sexual coercion of minors
Though the kidnapping of children for sexual abuse is rare, child sexual exploitation is not.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children recorded 366 abductions by a non-family member between 2016 and 2020, with many of the abductions being sexually motivated.
In 2020 alone, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 37,872 online reports of online enticement of children for sexual acts, and over 21.6 million reports of CSAM. In 2022, those numbers rose to 80,524 and 31.9 million, respectively.
Most CyberTipline reports come from social media platforms, many of which employ programs that automatically detect and report child sexual abuse material. It is unclear whether any social media platforms flagged the 27-year-old; however, unlike in other recent sexual abuse cases, it was not flagging that alerted authorities.
Some people in possession of this material, like the 27-year-old, store it on their phones rather than social media. But Apple, which has a large user base, did not introduce a mechanism for detecting child sexual abuse material until late 2021. The program alerts Apple of the material only after an account crosses an unspecified “threshold” number of images that match known child sexual abuse material.
RELATED: There's more child sexual abuse material online than ever before. How it's affecting Delaware
How to get help
National Suicide Hotline: 800-273-8255; en español 800-273-8255
Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 for crisis support
National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-656-4673
National Child Abuse Hotline: 800-422-4453
Team HOPE (free support for survivors of sexual abuse or exploitation and their families): 866-305-4673
Report child sexual abuse material to the CyberTipline online at report.cybertip.org or by calling 800-843-5678.
Send story tips or ideas to Hannah Edelman at hedelman@delawareonline.com. For more reporting, follow them on X at @h_edelman.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Man charged with kidnapping Wayne girl indicted on child porn charges
