VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — A Virginia Beach man pled guilty to coercion and enticement of minors Friday.
Court documents show that in September 2022, 50-year-old Shannon Ashley Robbins used Telegram to sale child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
From 2021 to 2023, Robbins created multiple social media accounts to entice and coerce his underage victims. The 50-year-old man would sometimes pretend to be a child when he approached his victims online.
Law enforcement officials interviewed a witness, referred to as Witness 1 (W-1), who admitted to purchasing CSAM from Robbins on Telegram. Using Cash App, W-1 sent Robbins $100 and received the CSAM on Telegram. Robbins later sold W-1 more images and videos of a 12 or 13-year-old boy for an additional $100 upon request. The material Robbins sold to W-1 included 135 sexually explicit images and 153 sexually explicit videos.
On Sept. 8, 2022, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a CyberTipline report, and later confirmed, that an individual had saved, shared, or uploaded four files of suspected CSAM. A little more than a week later, they received another CyberTipline report from the same IP address. That IP address was traced to Robbins’ Virginia Beach home.
Robbins knew two of his victims who lived near him. Between July 11 and Oct. 24, 2023, Robbins exchanged approximately 1,775 text messages with one of these victims. He exchanged approximately 3,958 text messages with the other victim between May 21 and Oct. 24, 2023.
On Oct. 25, 2023, law enforcement seized Robbins’ cellphone which contained a large volume of CSAM image and video files.
Robbins is scheduled to sentenced on Feb. 28, 2025. He faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years, and he could receive up to life in prison.