By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
A Georgia man pleaded guilty Monday in Los Angeles to transporting child pornography using a secret Internet bulletin board that allowed approximately three dozen members to trade thousands of images and videos of child pornography depicting young boys in sexually explicit situations, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.
David Michael Fagerness, 44, who pleaded guilty, is one of 16 defendants charged in the U.S. in an international investigation dubbed “Lost Boy”, authorities said. The bulletin board was shut down about two years ago.
Authorities said so far five of the 16 defendants hyave pleaded guilty.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said law enforcement authorities learned of the Lost Boy bulletin board from Eurojust, the judicial cooperation arm of the European Union.
“The Lost Boy bulletin board allowed members to access pornographic images of hundreds of boys who were victimized for sexual purposes,” said U.S. Attorney André Birotte Jr. “The investigation by officials here in the United States, working in conjunction with their law enforcement counterparts around the globe, shut down an international child pornography ring and will hopefully bring some justice to the numerous victims.
“As a result of this investigation, authorities also discovered individuals who abused children, made their own child pornography and shared their disturbing product with others on the Internet.”
