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A 24-year-old man who posed as a high school student to recruit victims on social media was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in federal prison for child sexual exploitation, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.Tyler Patrick Brown, now 25, of Lubbock, was charged via criminal complaint in June 2022 and indicted the following month. He pleaded guilty in September 2022 to production and attempted production of child pornography and was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, who ordered a lifetime of supervised release following his sentence and ordered him to pay $25,000 to the Amy, Vicky, and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act’s reserve fund.According to plea papers, Mr. Brown admitted he gave multiple children gifts, money, and alcohol in exchange for sexual acts.He told at least one of the victims, a 16-year-old girl, that he was 17 years old and went to high school online. When the girl spotted an ID that stated he was 24 years old, he claimed it was a fake. While she was under the influence of alcohol, he coerced the child into oral sex, recorded the encounter on his phone, and shared it. The child attempted to distance herself from the relationship, but Brown sent her a photo of his roommate’s gun and threatened to kill himself if she stopped seeing him.According to court documents, Mr. Brown repeatedly referred to himself as a “sugar daddy.” When he video chatted with his victims, he seldom showed his face or obscured most of it.In June 2022, Mr. Brown was spotted at a high school girls’ basketball game wearing a lanyard labeled “Press.” Concerned parents contacted law enforcement.In an interview with law enforcement, Mr. Brown admitted to engaging in 14 sexual relationships with minors after he’d turned 18. At Thursday’s sentencing, it was noted that law enforcement had, in fact, identified 22 children between the ages 13 and 17 who had been victimized by Mr. Brown when he was 20 to 24 years old.The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office – Lubbock Resident agency, the Texas Rangers, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Lubbock Police Department conducted the investigation with the significant assistance of local law enforcement agencies who helped identify and contact the victims. Assistant U.S. Attorney Callie Woolam prosecuted the case.
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