Aurora Man Richard Barnett who produced child porn using musical.ly, then changed to Tiktok, the application declares is guilty

Aurora, Ill. (WLS) – A suburban man declared himself guilty after prosecutors said he Pose as a 13 -year -old boy on social networks And supposedly threatened to kill the girls if they did not send inappropriate photos.

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Richard Barnett declared himself guilty almost eight years after being a federal accused for impersonating teenager.

A judicial sketch of Richard Barnett during a 2017 hearing.

Prosecutors said Barnett attracted at least four girls to produce pornographic images of themselves and sexually explicit messages were supposedly sent through a social networks application.

The federal authorities said that he created the profile “DavidBanks1014” who claims to be a 13 -year -old girl in the musical application.ly on April 22, 2017.

The victims were from the whole country and were between 9 and 13 years old, according to judicial documents.

He threw the minors chatting in the application and in the “live” function.

He was arrested in October 2017; He was 39 years old at that time.

After years of guilt conversations once again, Barnett declared himself guilty in February 2025 of a sexual exploitation charge of a minor and another position of threats through interstate communication.

Originally he was accused of a position of child pornography and a child pornography transport charge by the United States Prosecutor’s Office of the Northern District of Illinois.

Barnett is due in the Court by sentence on May 19, 2025.

If you think you are a victim of sexual exploitation, the National Center for missing and exploited children is available in 1-800-843-5678.