Grant Ridder of Mountain View, CA, was indicted by a federal grand jury in May, 2017, and charged with two counts of production of child pornography, three counts of distribution of child pornography, one count of possession of child pornography, three counts of cyberstalking, and one count of coercion and enticement of a minor.
According to court documents, law enforcement agents began investigating Ridder after a minor victim, 16, reported that her Facebook account had been accessed without her consent and sexually explicit photographs of her had been posted on her Facebook page. An investigation determined that Ridder owned the IP address that accessed the victims account when the photographs were being posted. The minor victim had recently ended a relationship with Ridder.
Ridder also used sextortion techniques to force another female victim, age 13, to send him sexually explicit photographs of herself. When she refused, Ridder told her that he would show her mother other photographs the victim had previously sent to him depicting the victim in a state of undress. The victim reported that she became scared and took several sexually explicit photographs and sent them to Ridder.
A growing cyber-crime, sextortion is a term used to describe a form of on-line exploitation where a sexual predator obtains explicit photos of victims and threatens to publish them online if the victim does not comply with additional requests typically additional explicit photos, sexual favors, or money.
Child exploitation is deeply disturbing. To prevent these terrible acts from being perpetrated against innocent children within our communities, the U.S. Secret Service, San Francisco Field Office has taken an active role in combatting these crimes by partnering with the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, said Thomas Edwards, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Secret Service San Francisco Field Office. Through the utilization of digital forensic and investigative techniques, the horrific acts committed by Grant Sterling Ridder were identified. Ridder was ultimately brought to justice and held accountable for his heinous actions.
Ridder admitted to law enforcement officials that he has distributed sexually explicit photographs of his victims on child pornography websites, and if the victims did not comply with his demands, he posted elicit photographs of his victims on their social media platforms.
Ridder was found guilty of producing child pornography, the distribution of child pornography and the possession of child pornography.
This case was brought as part of a nationwide initiative led by the Department of Justice, called Project Safe Childhood, which aims to combat child sexual exploitation and leverages federal, state, and local resources to apprehend and prosecute individuals who use the Internet to exploit children.
-- United States Secret Service
Source: U.S. Secret Service