A man who presented himself as a woman named Courtney Jansgen was sentenced to decades in prison for tricking a total of 155 teenage boys into having them send nude photos to him after he said that he is a modeling agency manager. Accordingly, the man, identified as Anton Martynenko, promised to give the teenagers a $1,000 modelling gig via social media.
The Washington Post reported that Martynenko is from Eagan, Minnesota. One of the teenagers who was a victim of the scheme is said to have refused the offer of the supposed modelling agency manager, which was paying the teen $300 if he performed oral sex on him.
The nude photo of that teenager then spread like wildfire on social media. That incident took place in 2012. The case of Martynenko is being regarded as the largest child pornography case that happened in Minnesota.
According to investigators, Martynenko posed as a young woman for four years on social media and most of his victims are teenage athletes from the Midwest. He reportedly started in 2011 and was continued to do so until he was charged in November last year. A month before his arrest, his home was raided and a drive was recovered containing the photos of his victims, which were labeled with the name, age, school, and the size of their private part.
Most of the time, when the teenager would turn down the offer for sexual favors or would refuse to send more nude photos, Martynenko would blackmail the teenagers and shared their nude snaps online. At least three teenagers were coerced by Martynenko into having sexual acts with him. Two of those teenagers killed themselves later. Accordingly, Martynenko distributed the naked photos of his victims more than 1,000 times.
Martynenko pleaded guilty to federal child pornography charges. He was sentenced on Tuesday to 38 years behind bars. He was supposed to spend four decades due to an unrelated homicide and child pornography case but he was cooperative with investigators thus the lesser sentence.
Twin Cities also reported that Martynenko talked to the murderer of Jacob Wetterling, Danny Heinrich, as they were in the same area in jail. Accordingly, Heinrich confessed to Martynenko about killing Wetterling. The two were both incarcerated at the Sherburne County Jail in Elk River.
