Trevor Lyons told the dad he would like to speak with his 12-year-old daughter, saying, “I’d love to see how much of a freak she is,” according to court documents. Lyons is accused of then adding the daughter as a friend on Discord and asking her if she would perform sex acts on him. The agent, meanwhile, was secretly controlling both accounts.

Lyons, 41, was arrested Monday and is accused of producing and distributing child pornography from around May 2020 to December 2024.

A federal grand jury charged him in a nine-count felony indictment with sexual exploitation, attempted sexual exploitation of a child to produce sexually explicit visuals, attempted enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity, and distribution of child pornography.

If convicted as charged, he faces a maximum sentence of life behind bars.

The undercover agent began exchanging messages with Lyons in a group chat on the Kik messaging app in August 2024, when the agent posed as a 43-year-old man with the username “UC Dad,” according to the indictment.

Lyons allegedly told UC Dad that he had a 17-year-old daughter of his own and asked UC Dad how old his daughter was. When UC Dad said 12, Lyons responded, “Oooof. A tad young but do you have pics? I have pics from when mine was 15,” according to the indictment.

Lyons continued to have conversations of a sexual nature with UC Dad on Telegram that month, according to the indictment.

On Sept. 9, 2024, Lyons allegedly added the girl as a friend on Discord and then asked her age, to which the undercover agent responded, “12.”

He told her he was 40 and asked if she liked older guys and whether she had seen a penis before, the indictment said. The conversation continued to escalate.

He asked if she had performed oral sex and offered to teach her, the indictment said. He also sent an explicit photo and video before asking her to perform oral sex on him, according to the indictment.

On Dec. 17, 2024, law enforcement officers seized a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, an iPhone 16 and an iPad 3 from Lyons.

The indictment, which was filed in August, details a long record of child pornography allegedly distributed by Lyons as well as a May 2020 incident in which he is accusing of coercing a minor to engage in sexually explicit acts for photos that would be distributed as pornography. According to the indictment, he used a variety of usernames online, including Carly, Herbdoc and DeFi Samurai.

Lyons was arrested by the FBI’s Ventura Child Exploitation Human Trafficking Task Force, a collaboration between the FBI and regional law enforcement agencies to rescue minor victims and investigate and arrest those involved in child exploitation and human trafficking. The task force recently arrested six additional people in Ventura County during a two-week operation in August targeting the production, distribution and possession of child sexual abuse material.

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But Victor Bustamante wasn’t really talking to an underage girl — It was sheriff’s deputies posing as a 13-year-old during an undercover operation.

After several days of communication, the sheriff’s department said undercover deputies had arranged to meet with Bustamante. Upon arrival, he was arrested and booked into Cois Byrd Detention Center.

He is being accused of arranging to meet a minor with the intent of sexual acts, contacting a minor with intent to commit sexual acts, exhibiting and sending harmful material to a minor and attempting lewd acts with a minor, the department said.

Bustamante is being held on a $55,000 bail, according to officials.

Anyone with information about this incident is urged to contact Deputy Hartert at the Perris Sheriff’s Station 951-210–1000. Anyone who wishes to report crimes or suspected illegal activities within the city can contact Sgt. Varela at the Perris Station at 951-210–1000.

“The Perris Sheriff’s Station Special Enforcement Team is committed to creating safe, secure neighborhoods free of violent crime,” according to a statement from the team.

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John Matthew Piecuch, 64, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John W. Holcomb, who scheduled a restitution hearing for May 1.

The investigation unraveled after Piecuch met the 12-year-old Maryland girl on Roblox, an online gaming platform. Piecuch told the victim he was a 13-year-old boy, according to federal prosecutors.

In January 2021, Piecuch and the girl texted each other, during which time he persuaded her to send him sexually explicit images of herself. Piecuch also persuaded the child to take and send him sexually explicit photographs of her 5-year-old female relative, prosecutors said.

The pre-teen’s mother saw some of the text messages on her daughter’s mobile device, which prompted the woman to contact law enforcement, according to court documents.

The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland assisted the FBI in the investigation of Piecuch.

“I’m very proud of my deputies for pursuing this case in conjunction with the FBI,” Carroll County Sheriff Jim DeWees said at the time of the 2021 indictment. “Parents beware and always be proactive with your child’s social media presence.”

Piecuch pleaded guilty in July 2024 to one count of production of child pornography. He has been in federal custody since August 2021, prosecutors said.

“Online games and platforms can allow child predators to hide behind fake identities and lure children into sharing private information,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally. “It is critical that we hold these predators accountable and convey a message of zero tolerance for those who prey on our youth. I also urge parents everywhere to monitor their children’s online activity to ensure their health and safety.”

Once Piecuch completes his 188-month prison sentence, he will remain on supervised release for the rest of his life, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sonah Lee of the Riverside Branch Office prosecuted the case.

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According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a grand jury indicted 23-year-old Collin John Thomas Walker of Bridgeton, New Jersey, and 41-year-old Clint Jordan Lopaka Nahooikaika Borge of Pahoa, Hawaii for their alleged role in a child exploitation cult that groomed children online and coerced at least 16 young victims to create child sexual abuse material and images of self-harm.

The charges are linked to two earlier indictments unsealed Thursday involving 28-year-old Rohan Sandeep Rane of Antibes, France, and 24-year-old Kaleb Christopher Merritt of Spring, Texas. All four men are in custody.

“The defendants here are alleged to have committed horrific acts against children,” said Acting United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally.

“Sextortion and other forms of online child sexual abuse have tragically altered the trajectory of too many young lives and this group preyed upon the vulnerable to fulfill their sick and twisted desires,” said Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Los Angeles Special Agent in Charge Eddy Wang. “HSI and our partners will work tirelessly to protect children from victimization in communities across the United States and around the globe.”

According to the indictment, the men are members of CVLT — pronounced cult — which is an online group centered on neo-Nazism, pedophilia and nihilism. CVLT members participated in their online child exploitation activities because they wanted to create an army of sadist followers, according to the justice department.

They targeted vulnerable children and exposed them to extreme videos of rape and the torture of animals to desensitize the children to sadistic violence, federal prosecutors said.

According to the indictment, the men then used threats and coercion to get children to create videos of extreme self-debasement, such as hurting themselves and eating their own hair and using razor blades to carve CVLT members’ names into their skin. They escalated the scope of what they asked of the youth, “…encouraging children to harm themselves and others, in order to desensitize them to extreme and violent acts, such as punching themselves, hanging themselves with belts, engaging in sexual or violent acts with their pets, and – eventually – escalating to killing themselves on livestream.”

The group then blackmailed the children with those images to produce child sexual abuse videos involving themselves, other children and animals, according to the indictment.

“When victims hesitated, resisted or threatened to tell parents or authorities, CVLT members would threaten to distribute already-obtained compromising photos and videos of the victims to their family and friends,” the U.S. Justice Department announced in a written statement. “For victims who stopped participating in the CSAM, CVLT would sometimes carry through on their threats.”

From at least 2019 to 2022, Rane, Walker, Merritt and Borge were members of CVLT, and Rane, Walker, and Merritt acted as leaders and administrators in the CVLT enterprise, hosting and running CVLT online servers and controlling membership for the group, the indictment alleges. They went by online handles such as “evil,” “sociopatch,” and “tradlordd,” according to the indictment.

According to prosecutors, there may be other unnamed suspects involved with the CVLT enterprise. Authorities identified victims around the world including in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.

If convicted, the men would face a 20-years to life in prison.

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MURRIETA, CA — A convicted felon accused of trying to arrange a sexual encounter with an underage girl — who was actually an undercover law enforcement officer involved in an online predator sting — was charged Thursday with multiple misdemeanor and felony offenses.

Laith Fathi Sikta, 44, of Sacramento was arrested Saturday following a monthlong law enforcement operation that included Riverside County sheriff’s deputies from the Southwest Station in French Valley.

Sikta is charged with two counts each of distributing harmful material to a minor and identity theft, as well as one count each of contacting a minor with intent to perpetrate a sexual offense, arranging a meeting with a minor for illicit purposes, possession of child pornography, attempting to furnish marijuana to a child under 14 years old and possession of controlled substances.

Sikta, who is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail at the Byrd Detention Center, was slated to make his initial court appearance Thursday afternoon at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.

According to sheriff’s Sgt. Joe Narciso, the investigation into Sikta’s online activity began toward the end of July when the internet predator sting was initiated.

“Sikta communicated his intent to have sex and arranged to meet for sex someone whom he believed to be a 14-year-old girl, but was actually an online undercover officer,” Narciso said.

He alleged that on Friday, the defendant drove from his Sacramento residence to Murrieta “with the plan to pick up the minor in the middle of the night.”

He was instead confronted by deputies, who took him into custody without incident on Winchester Road.

“Cannabis was located in Sikta’s vehicle,” the sheriff’s spokesman said.

According to court records, the defendant has a prior conviction for robbery.

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TEMECULA, CA — Three separate investigations into sex predators who target children online resulted in arrests, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department has announced.

The most recent case involved a 44-year-old Sacramento man who drove to Murrieta to have sex with what he believed was a 14-year-old girl but were actually undercover law enforcement officers.

According to the sheriff’s department, deputies with the Southwest Sheriff’s Station Investigations Bureau were working on a month-long investigation into online predators.

The work wrapped up Aug. 30 when Laith Fathi Sikta drove from Northern California to Murrieta to meet the “girl” for sex. He planned to pick up the minor in the middle of the night, the sheriff’s department reported.

Instead, Sikta, who had cannabis with him, was met by deputies, according to the agency.

Sikta was arrested and booked into county jail on suspicion of contacting a minor with the intent to have sex, sending harmful matter through electronic means to a minor, and offering to furnish cannabis to a minor, the department said.

Jail records show Sikta remains behind bars at Southwest Detention Center in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Another man, Andrey Raymundo Tovar Serrato, 31, of La Puente was arrested Aug. 27 in his city of residence following a report of a sexual assault on a minor in Temecula.

That investigation began around 11:55 p.m. Aug 12 when deputies got a call about a juvenile sexual assault victim who was being treated at a local hospital. The victim told deputies she was sexually assaulted in the 40000 block of Winchester Road.

“It was discovered [the] suspect initially contacted the victim through an online platform and later formed a relationship for sexual purposes,” according to the sheriff’s department.

After deputies tracked him down, Serrato was booked into county jail on suspicion of multiple sex crimes and furnishing cannabis to a minor, the department said.

Jail records were unavailable for Serrato.

Finally, on Aug. 7, deputies from the Perris Sheriff’s Station Special Enforcement Team began an online undercover operation in which they posed as a 13-year-old girl.

During that investigation, 63-year-old Yucaipa resident Guy Vincent Schneider allegedly responded.

“Over the next few days, deputies continued to communicate with Schneider, who ultimately said he wanted to meet in order to perform sex acts with the underaged female,” the sheriff’s department said.

On Aug. 30, “the girl” arranged to meet Schneider. He, too, was met by deputies who found him in possession of two firearms, according to the sheriff’s department.

Schneider was arrested and booked into county jail on suspicion of contacting a minor for sex, arranging to meet with a minor with the intent for sexual acts, and attempted lewd acts with a minor.

He was released from custody Sept. 1 on $1 million bail, according to jail records.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department previously released the wrong booking photo for Andrey Raymundo Tovar Serrato. The article was updated to include the correct image.

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