Former YouTube singing star Austin Jones has pleaded guilty to child porn charges after coercing underage girls to send him sexually explicit videos. He now faces a minimum of five years in federal prison.
In his plea agreement, the US 26-year-old admitted coercing six underage female fans to send him the explicit videos, and attempting to do the same to as many as 30 other victims.
The social media star would request his fans send him videos of themselves doing increasingly lewd dance moves and other sexually explicit acts.
"At the beginning, get super close and say these lines: 'hey Austin, it's (name) and this butt is (age) years old' and then make it clap for 30 seconds. Got it?" he told one girl, according to court documents.
Jones also encouraged them to send him sexually explicit videos of themselves, including images of them performing graphic sexual acts.
The YouTuber, who has roughly 500,000 subscribers, and whose videos regularly top the 1 million view mark, reportedly told the girls: "I know you're trying your hardest to prove you're my biggest fan. And I don't want to have to find someone else".
Many were reluctant to comply. One told him she'd resorted to cutting herself due to his behaviour, according to the plea deal.
His arrest in 2017 came after a long history of misdeeds and accusations. In 2015 his reputation was badly damaged when he posted a video asking his young fans to send him videos of themselves twerking.
At the time, he denied ever asking for nudes.
Newshub.
