An Exeter NH man is due in Hampton District Court on multiple felony child pornography charges for manufacturing and distributing a recording he made of two underage individuals having sex in rented home on Hampton Beach, one of whom is a girl from Massachusetts, according to patch.com
Robert Stephens, 21, of 16 Prospect St., allegedly used a laptop webcam in May 2011 to film his 15-year-old brother having consensual intercourse in a Page Lane cottage with a 14-year-old Massachusetts girl they had met on the beach, according to a police affidavit filed at the court.
Stephens, who was 19 at the time of the 2011 incident, didn’t enter a plea when he was arraigned on May 9 on one count of manufacturing a child sex abuse image and one count of distributing that child pornography via YouTube.
Both charges are Class B felonies. Stephens — who didn’t have sexual contact with either juvenile — is due in court at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, May 23, for a probable cause hearing on two counts of distribution of a child sex abuse image, according to court records.
Hampton police learned of the alleged incident on Jan. 19, 2012, when the department received a call from a Newbury, Mass., school resource officer, who said a female student reported she found online an unauthorized video of herself having sex with another teen, according to the affidavit.
According to patch.com, the 39-second clip was posted on YouTube under an explicit title, and the information sparked a New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force investigation led by Hampton Detective Chris Gilroy, Hampton’s Internet crimes investigator and a member of the task force.
The female victim identified Stephens during that investigation, and Stephens’ identity and the existence of the video was also confirmed through a search of the man’s YouTube account and during an undercover investigation into his Facebook profile, according to Gilroy’s affidavit.
Gilroy wrote in his statement that Stephens also allegedly began “hitting… up” the female victim through Facebook not long after the incident in May 2011, and allegedly told the victim she should “become a prostitute” and “sell herself” for money.
The victim told Gilroy that Stephens — whom she said was drinking while recording her having sex — allegedly indicated through Facebook “he wanted money” and that he could facilitate additional sexual encounters, according to the affidavit.
“He stated he would ‘set it up’ so that she could have sex for money,” wrote Gilroy in his report, adding that the victim said Stephens allegedly told her “it’s not that bad” to do so.
Police were able to locate screenshots of the explicit video on Stephens’ YouTube account during the investigation.
Stephens’ first attempt to post the video was blocked by the site, which bans pornography, although Gilroy found the video posted again under a different title and under a “private” setting that only Stephens’ YouTube followers could view, according to Gilroy in the affidavit.
Gilroy said he was able to view a still image of the sexual act, however, which helped secure one of multiple search warrants for Stephens’ Internet accounts and personal property, according to the affidavit.
Stephens is currently being held on $10,000 cash bail at the Rockingham County House of Corrections.
