NJ youth pastor pleads guilty to sexual exploitation of young boys online, sentenced to nearly 30 years
BURLINGTON COUNTY, N.J. - A local youth pastor will spend nearly 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexual exploitation of young boys online, according to Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, 32-year-old Sean Higgins of Palmyra is accused of coaxing underage boys on social media into sending nude pictures and videos of themselves before he used the items to blackmail them into sending sexually explicit videos.
Authorities say Higgins had four victims, all of whom he encountered in 2020. None of the interactions took place in person or involved members and students from Harbor Baptist Church and Harbor Baptist Academy in Hainesport, where he was employed, per investigators.
Officials say Higgins would communicate with his victims pretending to be a teenage girl named Julie Miller online while using Snapchat and Instagram before suggesting they trade photos.
According to authorities, after Higgins sent a photo of an unidentified teenage girl, he received nude photos the victims took of themselves and immediately threatened to send them to the victim's friends on social media.
In most of the cases, Higgins then demanded his victims place the phone in a specific position as they performed sexual acts on themselves while he recorded, per officials.
Videos obtained by law enforcement revealed many of the victims begged Higgins to allow them to stop engaging in the sexual contact, but he would demand they complete his instructions or the videos would be sent to their friends, investigators say.
Officials say the investigation began after a child in Berks County, Pennsylvania, contacted Snapchat to report he sent nude photos to someone he believed to be a female. Authorities say a child in Alabama also reported having communication with Higgins.
This comes as the FBI is warning parents about an "explosion" in sextortion cases across the country.
US sees an ‘explosion’ in sextortion of minors, warns parents
In a news release, officials said they have noticed an "explosion in incidents of children and teens being coerced into sending explicit images online and extorted for money—a crime known as financial sextortion." The cases involved at least 3,000 victims— mostly boys— and more than a dozen suicides.