A Cherokee County man has pleaded guilty in federal court to various charges related to “sextortion” involving teenage girls, or extortion to obtain pornographic images, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Destin Whitmore, 23, of Canton, pleaded guilty to five counts of extortion, three counts of distribution of child pornography and two counts of possession of child pornography, U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates' office said. He was indicted in February and arraigned the following month.
“Whitmore preyed on vulnerable girls who had the misfortune of crossing his path, both in person and online,” Yates said in an emailed statement. “We cannot emphasize enough the dangers to children of revealing personal information and sexually explicit images to others online. This case shows that those images could resurface in the most unexpected and unfortunate ways.”
An Arizona girl alerted police in April 2012 after a man she met through social media, later identified as Whitmore, threatened to send her sexually explicit photos to her family if she did not send him additional photos, according to investigators. Whitmore had online profiles under the names Ralph Jenkins and Lenny Carlington and allegedly used various websites to communicate with the teens.
Sentencing for Whitmore is scheduled for Dec. 9.
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