Report: Teen gets 15 years for Facebook blackmail
Wisconsin man had pleaded no contest to two felonies after using the social-networking site to blackmail male classmates into sex.
A Wisconsin teenager convicted of using Facebook to blackmail classmates into sex was sentenced to 15 years in prison, according to an Associated Press report.
Anthony Stancl, 19, plead no contest in December to two felonies, including repeated sexual assault of a child, according to the report. Stancle had been accused of creating a Facebook profile belonging to a nonexistent teenage girl and then, between approximately the spring 2007 and fall 2008, using it to convince more than 30 of his male classmates to send in nude photos or videos of themselves.
Stancl then reportedly threatened to post the photos or videos on the Internet if they didn't engage in some sort of sexual activity with him. At least seven of them have said they were coerced into sex acts, which Stancl documented with a cell phone camera.
About 300 photos of underage males, some of which were as young as 15, were found on Stancl's computer, police in the teen's hometown of New Berlin, Wisc., told the AP. Stancl had originally come under police scrutiny in November 2008 after a bomb threat temporarily closed New Berlin High School.
Stancl reportedly showed no emotion as his sentence was read Wednesday but said he had grown to empathize with what his victims went through, the AP reported. He had faced up to 30 years in prison.