Tuesday saw the appearance in St. Louis court of a man who had been sextorting a Missouri youngster from an island in the Turks and Caicos chain, just north of the Dominican Republic.
Alexander Gardiner, 23, of Providenciales, is charged with trying to force a minor to participate in sexually explicit behavior between September 24, 2018, and June 30, 2023, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Gardiner allegedly reached out to the juvenile over social media, luring the teenager to give him pictures that were suggestive of sex.
Gardiner threatened to send those photographs to others in order to get money from the child, and he later posted an explicit film on social media.
This is all documented in his custody order. Images of other adolescent victims were found on Gardiner’s iCloud account, according to the U.S. Attorney Office.
According to court documents, Gardiner went by the screen names “noahmonn” on Snapchat, “jewelsbaits” on X, “algardiner33” and “algardiner22” on Google.
On August 8, Gardiner was taken into custody at Miami International Airport. On May 22, a grand jury subsequently indicted him on one count of coercion and inducement of a minor.
On Tuesday, he entered a not guilty plea in court.
The minimum sentence for enticement crimes is ten years in jail, while the maximum sentence is life.
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According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, anyone who thinks they could have been the victim of sextortion should report it online at tips.fbi.gov or cybertipline.org, call 1-800-CALL-FBI, or get in touch with local law enforcement.