COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus man was sentenced to 27 years in prison for sexually exploiting and sextorting more than 25 victims across three states.
Lorenzo Winfield, 23, pleaded guilty in December to sexually exploiting minors, possessing child sexual abuse images and communicating across state lines with the intent to extort, according to U.S. Attorney Kenneth Parker’s office.
He was sentenced in U.S. District Court Tuesday to 324 months in prison. Parker’s office says Winfield persistently and aggressively sought out and collected nude files of high school classmates at the Arts and College Preparatory Academy and minor females he met online.
Authorities say Winfield would contact students at ACPA and demand nude photos of them. He would also hack into victims' social media accounts and use the photos he obtained against them.
Winfield would tell the victims he had nude photos of them or other students that he would distribute to friends or family unless the victims complied. Winfield followed through on the threats multiple times by distributing photos of his victims to prove he was serious in an attempt to get more content, authorities said.
Winfield used multiple social media accounts to participate in the exploitation and extortion of the victims that have been identified so far. He was active on Discord, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Skype and Google Hangouts.
Winfield was also being investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office for extorting and exploiting at least four victims in Virginia.
In one of the cases, Winfield made contact with a victim who was 11 years old at the time. He sent nude photos of the victim to students at a Virginia middle school and, as she got older, to her high school. The victim originally met Winfield through a social media game. He threatened to harm her family if she did not comply with his requests for sexually explicit photos and videos and continued to exploit her until authorities arrested him.
In a case in Texas, Winfield exploited at least one victim. An investigation revealed that the Texas victim sent approximately 50 pictures and videos to Winfield. He demanded explicit images and video of her daily. On one occasion, when the victim did not comply with his demands, Parker’s office says Winfield sent images of the victim to the victim’s brother and friend.