HARTFORD, Conn. — Editor's note: The video in the player above is from a previously published story.
A Lakewood man pled guilty Monday in a Connecticut court to charges of distribution of child pornography.
According to Leonard C. Boyle, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Brian Grinnell, 36, posed as a 15-year-old female on the internet in March 2020 in order to receive sexually explicit photos of a minor.
Grinnell used Omegle and Snapchat to pressure a 12-year-old girl into sending explicit photos and videos of herself to him. Officials say that after the young girl began to feel threatened, she blocked Grinell's account.
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The 36-year-old, still posing as a young girl, then reached out to a friend of the minor and stated that unless she unblocked him, he would post explicit videos of her on Tiktok. When she refused, Grinnell posted videos to Tiktok and told the friend of the 12-year-old to send more nude videos.
“I want a video of you begging me to not put them up. And you have to be topless in the video," Grinnell told the second minor. "If you don’t want any more of your friend stuff going out.”
The friend told Grinnell that she was planning to call the police, to which the Lakewood man responded, "how are they gonna find me?"
Grinnell then posted another sexually explicit video of the 12-year-old girl to TikTok.
The Lakewood man was arrested in September and is scheduled to go before U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea in Hartford on July 19. He faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years.