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Last updated on Friday, April 25, 2014
(FORT WAYNE) - Nathan Hasty set up phony Facebook pages to solicit nude photos from children, including kids in his own youth group, according to a federal investigation.
A judge accepted Hasty's guilty plea on one charge of sexual exploitation of a minor on Wednesday and sentenced him to 15 years.
He had been a campus life director for Youth for Christ for about nine years, according to court documents.
In an affidavit detailing the investigation which dates back to 2012, an FBI agent who investigated the case said Hasty used Facebook under three different fake identities in order to start sexual conversations with several minors and eventually solicit naked photos of them.
Facebook contacted law enforcement about the fake accounts in January to February 2012.
The affidavit states that he had two accounts under which he pretended to be a sixteen-year-old girl. He used these accounts to message dozens of boys, most between the ages of 12 and 14, in order to flirt with these boys and start sexual conversations. He then asked for pictures of the boys, including naked pictures. Documents state he also asked the boys for webcams sessions, claiming he didn't have a camera and could only watch.
Hasty posed as a nineteen year old boy in his third Facebook account and contacted girls and boys. According to documents, he used this account to engage in similar behavior and ask similar questions.
The FBI affidavit states that a Facebook report linked these accounts by IP addresses and browser cookies, which means Hasty used the same computer (or other devices) to access these accounts and his other personal accounts.
Hasty was confronted by law enforcement at his home on Sept. 21, 2012. He admitted to the FBI agent and the Task Force Officer that he had posed as a girl using a fake Facebook account to speak with boys in his youth group. He said he might have said some things "he shouldn't have said" and that the conversation may have become "sexual."
Hasty was suspended from Youth for Christ as soon as the organization learned of the FBI's investigation. His employment was terminated on Sept. 24, 2012.
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