Man Used Apps to Contact and Coerce Children to Produce Explicit Images
Mark David Wallin, 44, of the Del Rey neighborhood of Los Angeles, was sentenced by United States District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong to 480 months in federal prison. The resident of the Westside of Los Angeles used apps such as Snapchat to meet and entice children to engage in sexually explicit video chats, which he screen-captured and saved, without the children knowing.
During the hearing, Judge Frimpong said Wallin committed “cruel and relentless” crimes against children and that his conduct was “highly sexualized sadomasochistic conduct that no child should know of, let alone be exposed to.” Frimpong has scheduled a restitution hearing for August 13.
Wallin pleaded guilty in September 2024 to one count of production of child pornography and one count of enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity and has been in federal custody since 2022.
From 2019 to August 2021, Wallin used the internet to find pre-teen boys and girls, both abroad and in the United States, and start relationships with them online, with the intent to obtain sexually explicit images and videos from them. Wallin also persuaded the victims to engage in sexually explicit conduct via video chat, which he screen-captured and saved.
After his victims sent him sexually explicit content, Wallin would then demand additional sexually explicit images and videos from them. The threat that Wallin held over the children was to expose the chats and images in public if they refused to produce more.
Wallin coerced a child, who was approximately 9-10 years old at the time, to produce sexually explicit images and videos used on the social media app Snapchat. Wallin admitted in his plea agreement to knowingly causing at least four additional victims, ranging in age from 12 to 16 years old, to produce multiple files of child pornography.
Wallin further admitted to possessing approximately 200 files containing child sexual abuse material in August 2021. Homeland Security Investigations investigated this matter, with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department assisting.
Assistant United States Attorneys Scott M. Lara of the Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section and Catharine A. Richmond of the Violent and Organized Crime Section prosecuted this case.
