LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — A federal jury in Louisiana convicted an Alabama man on Tuesday of creating child pornography by coercing a girl under age 12 to send him sexually explicit images of herself.
William Malone, 45, of Mobile, was convicted in Lafayette on five counts of producing child pornography and two related charges, federal prosecutors said in a news release.
The federal public defenders who represented Malone did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Malone “did employ, use, persuade, induce, entice, and coerce a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct” for the pornography, according to the production charges in the indictment handed up Oct. 7, 2020.
Acting U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook said the investigation began in March 2020, after the girl in Mobile told her mother that Malone had been sexually abusing her.
Malone was captain of a vessel that sailed out of Abbeville, Louisiana, and the images were on his phone and laptop, found in a search of that vessel, the news release said.
FBI agents had found texts on the girl’s cell phone asking her to send sexually explicit images of herself, and images that she told officers she had sent were found on Malone’s phone and laptop, according to the news release.
A sentencing date has not been set. The maximum total sentence would be life in prison plus 160 years, and a $250,000 fine, the news release said.
Charges of sexual abuse of a child under age 12 and of first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy are pending in Mobile, police spokeswoman Katrina Frazier said in an email.
The Mobile County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to an email asking if he has an attorney there who could speak for him.
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