Minnesota Man Gets 35 Years in Prison for ‘Sextorting’ Minors

A 21-year-old Minnesota man was sentenced to 35 years behind bars Monday for ‘sextorting’ more than 40 young girls.

“Dylan Deling, of Fairmont, was sentenced to 420 months in federal prison after pleading guilty last year to producing child pornography and extortion, U.S. District Attorney for Minnesota Erica MacDonald announced Monday,” according to WCCO.

Deling, a registered sex offender, also went by the names Jason Keens and Dylan Nash, a press release from the attorney’s office said.

The release detailed the crime:

According to the defendant’s guilty plea and documents filed in court, between October 2017 and August 2, 2018, DELING used multiple social media and chat platforms, including Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Kik, and Skype, as well as text messages to carry out his sextortion scheme.

Sextortion is the act of extorting sexually explicit images and videos from a victim by threatening to reveal a victim’s sexually explicit chats, images, or videos, or through threats of harm to the victim or the victim’s loved ones. In the course of his scheme, DELING sextorted more than 40 minor girls whom he knew to be or believed were between 11 and 17 years old.

Officials said he lured the girls in with expressions of affection, then gradually persuaded them to send him images, according to the WCCO report:

During the process of extortion, Deling would sometimes send the explicit photos to the victims’ family and friends. Other times, he would threatening [sic] to have men rape, kidnap or kill the girls or their family members.

To frighten his victims, Deling would send them screenshots of maps of their home address or those belonging to loved ones. He’d also post other identifying information online, and, in one instance, obtained sexually explicit images from one of the girls’ friends.

McDonald said Monday she hoped Deling’s sentence represented justice and closure for the victims and their loved ones.

“This defendant’s victimization went beyond sexual exploitation; his ultimate goal was to instill fear and humiliation. This type of depraved criminal behavior will not be tolerated,” she concluded.