Friday, June 1, 2007

"I've Got Cancer-- Now Show Me Your Tits"

A Beaverton man admited that he fooled girls into sending him pornographic pictures by pretending to be a 15-year-old boy dying of leukemia.

Joshua Kistler, 31, will spend the next 24 years in prison for his crimes. Kistler posed online as a boy from a broken home and coerced young girls to send him nude photos and to perform sexual acts in front of Web cams by appealing to their sympathy because he made them believe that he didn’t have long to live.

The victims were spread across the country, all linked via the Internet. Most of the girls, who ranged in age from nine to 16, said they trusted and loved Kistler. One of the victims' mothers read a statement in court, to Kistler from her daughter.

“He taught me stuff a 12-year-old should not know,” read the mother of a Utah girl who started chatting with Kistler when she was 12. “My love of my life turned out to be a 30-year-old pedophile.”

Before the judge sentenced him, Kistler apologized to his victims. “I’m sorry for the harm I’ve caused. I wasn’t aware I was causing harm,” he said. One of the victims tried twice to kill herself after learning the truth from police and then being forced by her family to call off the relationship.

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