January 6, 2021
A man holds a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration
A New Jersey man of Indian origin, convicted of receiving child pornography, was sentenced Jan. 6, 2021, to more than seven years in federal prison.
Pritkumar Tarunkumar Patel, 24, of Closter, NJ, befriended three Rhode Island minor females and a fourth in Indiana on social media, persuading them to send him sexually explicit photographs of themselves, a press release from the U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island, said on the basis of court documents.
He then cyberstalked and threatened to share some of the photographs on social media with their classmates and others if they refused to continue communicating with him. He sent sexually explicit photographs of himself to the girls and, in at least one instance, communicated in much the same way via a live video chat, the press release revealed.