Police accuse 22-year-old Hugh Riley Ener, a junior college student, husband and father-of-two, of an extortion campaign against a pair of young teenagers.
It began, the Internet crimes against children detective says, when the suspect infiltrated the victims' Facebook and email accounts, found private pictures and then blackmailed them into taking more pornographic photos or risk having other pictures posted on Facebook.
"He was off and on terrorizing these children," Webster Police Department Detective David Nettles said.
The shakedown was not for cash, but child pornography.
"Threatening them, making them give more pornography and they got to the point where they couldn't stand anymore," Nettles said.
Finally, the boy and girl targeted walked in the door of the Webster police station and told all. IP addresses were traced, computers were seized, and the images were retrieved with the help of homeland security.
Police arrested Ener Wednesday, and there's a lesson in this for parents.
"And make sure their kids never give their passwords to anybody else," Nettles said.
Police say Ener bragged to one of his victims that police would never catch him. He's now behind bars at Webster City Jail and is expected to be transferred into federal custody sometime Thursday.
Police say Ener may have more victims. Anyone who thinks their child may have been targeted is asked to contact Webster police.
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