ATLANTA – Benjamin Jenkins has been sentenced to 40 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of producing and distributing child pornography that he coerced more than 100 young girls to create.
“Jenkins exploited as many as 150 girls for his perverse satisfaction, causing unbelievable trauma to these children and their families,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak. “The sheer degradation and depravity that Jenkins forced his victims to endure is unimaginable. This sentence will hopefully help these courageous victims and their families heal.”
“No sentence will ever bring back the innocence that this monster stole from hundreds of girls,” said acting Special Agent in Charge Robert Hammer, who oversees Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) operations in Georgia and Alabama. “These victims were trapped in a vicious cycle from which they could not escape. We will continue to go after these predators while educating our youth about the dangers of sextortion.”
According to U.S. Attorney Pak, the charges and other information presented in court: Beginning in 2015, Jenkins allegedly used different identities to contact girls between the ages of 13 and 16 years. To lure the girls, he would use different aliases and profiles where he would persuade them to send a sexually suggestive photo of themselves. After a girl sent him a photo, Jenkins would threaten her into sending him more photos and videos by claiming that he would post their photos online or send them to their family and friends. Jenkins instructed the girls on what body parts to show, what poses to make, and what objects to insert into their genitals and anus. If a girl did not provide him with a photo or video quickly enough, he would start a countdown clock: the girl had a certain amount of time to provide him with an image before he started posting her other images online. Jenkins further humiliated his victims by forcing them to send him videos showing them drinking their own urine or licking toilets. He also humiliated many of his victims by making them watch him masturbate.
Once a girl blocked Jenkins online, he would send her explicit photos to her parents and friends with demands that the girl resume communications with him. Jenkins also posted his victim’s nude photos and contact information online with messages for men to contact the girls directly for more photos or for sex. In total, Jenkins sextorted as many as 150 girls or more.
Benjamin Jenkins, 25, of Mableton, Georgia, was sentenced to 40 years in prison to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release. He will also be required to register as a sex offender upon release. Jenkins was charged with nine counts of producing child pornography and three counts of distributing child pornography. He was convicted of all of these charges by a federal jury on January 16, 2020.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations with the assistance from the Highland (Illinois) Police Department.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul R. Jones and L. Skye Davis, Deputy Chief of the Violent Crime & National Security Section, prosecuted the case.
This case is being brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In February 2006, the Attorney General launched Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices around the country, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children.
