The young fans who lifted Austin Jones to internet stardom were devout in their affection, the way only teenage girls can be.
Crowds would swarm the singer after his shows, and his admirers — many connecting to songs that hinted at Jones’ own traumatic history — flooded him with messages confiding in him about their own abuse and depression.
It was among those devoted fans that Jones found his victims, coercing underage girls to perform sexually explicit dances during live online chats by promising modeling opportunities, Instagram stardom and his valuable attention.
“ohmygoodness that’s amazing!!” one victim responded when Jones told her she had “a lot of modeling potential,” according to prosecutors.
his guilty plea in February to child pornography charges. The resident of west suburban Bloomingdale admitted he persuaded six underage girls — 14 to 15 at the time — to make sexually explicit videos for him while attempting to coerce as many as 30 others as well.
“He preyed on their youth, their vulnerabilities and most glaringly, their adoration of him, and he did it over and over again,” prosecutors said in a court filing last week. “He coached the girls on what to wear, what to say, how to dance and what to do in the videos.”
YouTube star Austin Jones pleads guilty to coercing underage girls to send him sexually explicit videos »
In asking for leniency, Jones’ attorneys emphasized his own history as a victim, arguing his actions cannot be fully understood outside the context of a childhood “marred with abuse, pain, loss and death.”
The defense seeks the minimum possible sentence of five years in prison in a court filing that lays out in graphic terms Jones’ complicated past, including allegations of years of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of his alcoholic, cocaine-abusing father, now deceased, as well as the death of his sister at a young age.
“There can be no question that the systematic devastation of Mr. Jones’ psyche at the hands of his father at such an impressionable age helped create the conditions in which Mr. Jones acted in the manner that he did,” wrote attorneys Terrence LeFevour and David Gaeger.
Manipulated vulnerable fans
Jones rose to fame in a particularly 21st-century fashion, attracting online fans — many on YouTube — with music he mostly recorded in his living room and promoted on social media. At the height of his popularity, he had hundred of thousands of followers and toured around the world.
But his superstar status crumbled after authorities unearthed dozens of sexually explicit online chats with underage girls, some lasting hours. He would often coax them to take off their clothes and dance suggestively on video, sometimes instructing them to talk about their young age as they performed.
“Here’s your line — hey Austin, I’m only 14 — Say that 4 times during the video got it?!” Jones told one girl, according to the recent prosecution filing.
“Kk!!” she responded. “While each video sends, I just sit here listening to you on my Spotify.”
'Wait . . . you're 14?': Austin Jones had YouTube fame, 40 million page views, adoring fans and a shocking secret. »
Jones was arrested at O’Hare International Airport in June 2017 as he returned on a flight from performing in Poland. In a recorded confession, he admitted soliciting explicit videos from his underage fans.
If the girls were reticent to do what he wanted, Jones told authorities, he would try to make them feel guilty and “manipulate a way so that they don’t feel the need to stop,” according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Neff Welsh.
In one example in prosecutors’ filing, Jones was quoted as asking one victim if she felt “special” because “out of all my fans, I picked you for this opportunity?”
The victim responded by saying she felt as if she was “dreaming,” prosecutors said.
Another victim who was dancing for Jones said she might have to finish the next day “because I have school in the morning,” according to prosecutors.
Jones responded that they would do five more videos, prompting the girl to ask, “tomorrow, right?”
“No, right now. Then we do the rest tomorrow,” prosecutors quoted Jones as saying. “I’m taking a huge chance on you. And you don’t even seem like you want it.”
Lyrics expose depth of pain
Jones’ attorneys said he has taken responsibility for his actions, expressed profound remorse, undertaken therapy to try to deal with his demons and diligently obeyed the strict rules of his release on house arrest.
The defense centers much of its argument for mercy on Jones’ own history as an alleged victim of abuse, saying it provides the proper context for his later misconduct.
In the months after his arrest, Jones alleged that his father repeatedly molested him between the ages of 6 and 10, according to the defense filing. The ensuing “emotional trauma and chaos … has consumed his life,” they wrote, leading to severe depression, low self-esteem, sexual dysfunction and difficulty sleeping since the age of 11.
“Overwhelmed socially, emotionally and academically, it was often a struggle just to get out of bed” during his final two years of high school, his attorneys wrote in their sentencing memo.
His music provided an outlet for his anxiety and depression, Jones said, and his fan base responded in kind, telling him about their own experiences with self-harm and abuse.
“His lyrics expose the depth of his pain and extent of his struggles,” his attorneys wrote. “Listening to his music you can hear his cries for help and his desperate self-yearning to understand what was wrong with him. His song titled, ‘Damaged Goods,’ says it all.”
Prosecutors acknowledged that Jones’ experiences affected his mental health but noted that works both ways: having been abused, he still “inflicted the same harms upon a new generation of victims” despite having “a unique appreciation” for the damage he would cause, they said.
And Jones knew just how to manipulate his vulnerable fans into performing the lewd acts for him, preying on their naivete and their own mental health issues or insecurities, prosecutors said.
“You’re so lucky I keep giving you so many chances,” he told one girl via Facebook chat.
“I know,” the girl responded. “I’m just going through so much right now. I had to fight the urge to cut last night because I promised you I wouldn’t do it anymore, and I always keep my promises.”
“Good girl,” replied Jones, who then promptly instructed her to send him an explicit video.
‘A parent’s worst nightmare’
In their court filing, prosecutors argued that research has not established a cause-and-effect link between suffering sexual abuse as a child and then perpetrating it as an adult.
Mark Heyrman, a clinical professor at the University of Chicago Law School who teaches mental health law, said it’s more an issue of propensity than a “causal link.”
Not every victim of sexual abuse goes on to victimize others, but that experience could make someone more inclined to abuse, said Heyrman, who spoke with the Tribune in general terms since he was not familiar with the specifics of Jones’ case.
“(It) is common to find that people who are charged with (or) convicted of sex offenses as adults were, in fact, themselves abused as children and got no help for that,” he said.
While that is not a defense against criminal charges, it can be used — as in Jones’ case — to ask for leniency at sentencing.
“Basically they’re saying, it’s not that he isn’t responsible for the crime, but in the range of sentences, ... the judge could impose a lesser sentence because this person is less responsible” for the abuse, Heyrman said.
Prosecutors also noted that Jones was already called to account for similar behavior. In May 2015, during his second tour, a viral Twitter post accused him of asking “under-aged girls for dancing and twerking videos.”
Jones posted a video apologizing, and his career continued to flourish, according to his attorneys’ filing.
But prosecutors said he lied in his “heartfelt video” apology by denying he solicited videos depicting nudity. After his arrest in 2017, he admitted he had carried on similar conduct at that time.
The intense backlash should have been a wake-up call, prosecutors argued, but Jones continued to solicit graphic videos from underage girls.
“When Jones was publicly outed for the same behavior that he would later be criminally charged with, he still did not stop,” prosecutors wrote. “Jones was unable to quit. … The defendant is already, by his own admission, a recidivist.”
He is also “a parent’s worst nightmare,” one victim’s mother wrote in a victim-impact statement.
“What happens when your child thinks she can trust someone that, to her, isn’t a stranger? She knows almost everything there is to know about him, watches his videos, comments and follows him on social media,” the mother wrote.
“Then one day she gets a message from him asking her to prove she is his biggest fan by doing inappropriate things. … He knew these young girls would do anything for him and sought them out of everyone specifically for this reason.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news...ld-pornography-sentencing-20190425-story.html
Crowds would swarm the singer after his shows, and his admirers — many connecting to songs that hinted at Jones’ own traumatic history — flooded him with messages confiding in him about their own abuse and depression.
It was among those devoted fans that Jones found his victims, coercing underage girls to perform sexually explicit dances during live online chats by promising modeling opportunities, Instagram stardom and his valuable attention.
“ohmygoodness that’s amazing!!” one victim responded when Jones told her she had “a lot of modeling potential,” according to prosecutors.
his guilty plea in February to child pornography charges. The resident of west suburban Bloomingdale admitted he persuaded six underage girls — 14 to 15 at the time — to make sexually explicit videos for him while attempting to coerce as many as 30 others as well.
“He preyed on their youth, their vulnerabilities and most glaringly, their adoration of him, and he did it over and over again,” prosecutors said in a court filing last week. “He coached the girls on what to wear, what to say, how to dance and what to do in the videos.”
YouTube star Austin Jones pleads guilty to coercing underage girls to send him sexually explicit videos »
In asking for leniency, Jones’ attorneys emphasized his own history as a victim, arguing his actions cannot be fully understood outside the context of a childhood “marred with abuse, pain, loss and death.”
The defense seeks the minimum possible sentence of five years in prison in a court filing that lays out in graphic terms Jones’ complicated past, including allegations of years of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of his alcoholic, cocaine-abusing father, now deceased, as well as the death of his sister at a young age.
“There can be no question that the systematic devastation of Mr. Jones’ psyche at the hands of his father at such an impressionable age helped create the conditions in which Mr. Jones acted in the manner that he did,” wrote attorneys Terrence LeFevour and David Gaeger.
Manipulated vulnerable fans
Jones rose to fame in a particularly 21st-century fashion, attracting online fans — many on YouTube — with music he mostly recorded in his living room and promoted on social media. At the height of his popularity, he had hundred of thousands of followers and toured around the world.
But his superstar status crumbled after authorities unearthed dozens of sexually explicit online chats with underage girls, some lasting hours. He would often coax them to take off their clothes and dance suggestively on video, sometimes instructing them to talk about their young age as they performed.
“Here’s your line — hey Austin, I’m only 14 — Say that 4 times during the video got it?!” Jones told one girl, according to the recent prosecution filing.
“Kk!!” she responded. “While each video sends, I just sit here listening to you on my Spotify.”
'Wait . . . you're 14?': Austin Jones had YouTube fame, 40 million page views, adoring fans and a shocking secret. »
Jones was arrested at O’Hare International Airport in June 2017 as he returned on a flight from performing in Poland. In a recorded confession, he admitted soliciting explicit videos from his underage fans.
If the girls were reticent to do what he wanted, Jones told authorities, he would try to make them feel guilty and “manipulate a way so that they don’t feel the need to stop,” according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Neff Welsh.
In one example in prosecutors’ filing, Jones was quoted as asking one victim if she felt “special” because “out of all my fans, I picked you for this opportunity?”
The victim responded by saying she felt as if she was “dreaming,” prosecutors said.
Another victim who was dancing for Jones said she might have to finish the next day “because I have school in the morning,” according to prosecutors.
Jones responded that they would do five more videos, prompting the girl to ask, “tomorrow, right?”
“No, right now. Then we do the rest tomorrow,” prosecutors quoted Jones as saying. “I’m taking a huge chance on you. And you don’t even seem like you want it.”
Lyrics expose depth of pain
Jones’ attorneys said he has taken responsibility for his actions, expressed profound remorse, undertaken therapy to try to deal with his demons and diligently obeyed the strict rules of his release on house arrest.
The defense centers much of its argument for mercy on Jones’ own history as an alleged victim of abuse, saying it provides the proper context for his later misconduct.
In the months after his arrest, Jones alleged that his father repeatedly molested him between the ages of 6 and 10, according to the defense filing. The ensuing “emotional trauma and chaos … has consumed his life,” they wrote, leading to severe depression, low self-esteem, sexual dysfunction and difficulty sleeping since the age of 11.
“Overwhelmed socially, emotionally and academically, it was often a struggle just to get out of bed” during his final two years of high school, his attorneys wrote in their sentencing memo.
His music provided an outlet for his anxiety and depression, Jones said, and his fan base responded in kind, telling him about their own experiences with self-harm and abuse.
“His lyrics expose the depth of his pain and extent of his struggles,” his attorneys wrote. “Listening to his music you can hear his cries for help and his desperate self-yearning to understand what was wrong with him. His song titled, ‘Damaged Goods,’ says it all.”
Prosecutors acknowledged that Jones’ experiences affected his mental health but noted that works both ways: having been abused, he still “inflicted the same harms upon a new generation of victims” despite having “a unique appreciation” for the damage he would cause, they said.
And Jones knew just how to manipulate his vulnerable fans into performing the lewd acts for him, preying on their naivete and their own mental health issues or insecurities, prosecutors said.
“You’re so lucky I keep giving you so many chances,” he told one girl via Facebook chat.
“I know,” the girl responded. “I’m just going through so much right now. I had to fight the urge to cut last night because I promised you I wouldn’t do it anymore, and I always keep my promises.”
“Good girl,” replied Jones, who then promptly instructed her to send him an explicit video.
‘A parent’s worst nightmare’
In their court filing, prosecutors argued that research has not established a cause-and-effect link between suffering sexual abuse as a child and then perpetrating it as an adult.
Mark Heyrman, a clinical professor at the University of Chicago Law School who teaches mental health law, said it’s more an issue of propensity than a “causal link.”
Not every victim of sexual abuse goes on to victimize others, but that experience could make someone more inclined to abuse, said Heyrman, who spoke with the Tribune in general terms since he was not familiar with the specifics of Jones’ case.
“(It) is common to find that people who are charged with (or) convicted of sex offenses as adults were, in fact, themselves abused as children and got no help for that,” he said.
While that is not a defense against criminal charges, it can be used — as in Jones’ case — to ask for leniency at sentencing.
“Basically they’re saying, it’s not that he isn’t responsible for the crime, but in the range of sentences, ... the judge could impose a lesser sentence because this person is less responsible” for the abuse, Heyrman said.
Prosecutors also noted that Jones was already called to account for similar behavior. In May 2015, during his second tour, a viral Twitter post accused him of asking “under-aged girls for dancing and twerking videos.”
Jones posted a video apologizing, and his career continued to flourish, according to his attorneys’ filing.
But prosecutors said he lied in his “heartfelt video” apology by denying he solicited videos depicting nudity. After his arrest in 2017, he admitted he had carried on similar conduct at that time.
The intense backlash should have been a wake-up call, prosecutors argued, but Jones continued to solicit graphic videos from underage girls.
“When Jones was publicly outed for the same behavior that he would later be criminally charged with, he still did not stop,” prosecutors wrote. “Jones was unable to quit. … The defendant is already, by his own admission, a recidivist.”
He is also “a parent’s worst nightmare,” one victim’s mother wrote in a victim-impact statement.
“What happens when your child thinks she can trust someone that, to her, isn’t a stranger? She knows almost everything there is to know about him, watches his videos, comments and follows him on social media,” the mother wrote.
“Then one day she gets a message from him asking her to prove she is his biggest fan by doing inappropriate things. … He knew these young girls would do anything for him and sought them out of everyone specifically for this reason.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news...ld-pornography-sentencing-20190425-story.html
