A Florida man was arrested after cops say he tried to solicit nudes from a minor on Snapchat — and his heinous scheme didn’t go as planned!
On Friday, Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey made a post to the his office’s Facebook page detailing a very disturbing allegation in which a 14-year-old girl became the target of 20-year-old David McGinness on the social media messaging app. In the lengthy post, Sheriff Ivey said:
“Folks, there is no better time to talk to your children about internet and social media safety than right now and yesterday’s arrest of David McGinness is a perfect example of why we need to have those tough conversations with our kids!!”
He said the “sorry carcass” suspect was caught up with by the SVU after they obtained a warrant for several charges, including “electronic threat to kill, extortion, lewd and lascivious conduct, and computer solicitation of a child”. Calling the case “plain scary” the law enforcement official said:
“This case is just plain scary as it started when McGinness engaged in conversation with a juvenile victim on Snapchat after viewing a photograph that was posted publicly by the victim. McGinness and the victim who is only 14, talked for a short period of time, until the victim learned the age of McGinness who is 20 years old.”
The post went on to report how, once learning of his age, the victim cut off contact with the suspect — but didn’t unadd or delete him from the app. A few months after this, the teen received messages from him once again, this time demanding nudes and inappropriate photos from the girl:
“When the victim refused to send the photographs McGinness began to make absolutely vile threats to rape and kill the victim and the victim’s family members.”
Downright horrifying!
Related: Cheer Has ANOTHER Child Porn Arrest?!
And it only got worse due to the young girl’s Snap Maps feature not having proper privacy settings enabled, because he knew EXACTLY where she was, the Sheriff wrote:
“McGinness went as far as to tell the victim he knew where they lived and would be there within an hour if the victim didn’t comply!! McGinness demonstrated that he actually knew the victim’s address because the victim’s location services were turned on for the “Snap Map” allowing them to see where the victim was!!”
He went on to say how thankful he was that the little girl communicated this to her parents, or else things could’ve ended up A LOT worse. We can’t imagine what would’ve happened if she didn’t tell anyone! Sheriff Ivey also encouraged parents to reach out to their children and monitor their online activity:
“Always remember…monitoring everything they do is not an invasion of their privacy, it’s just simply keeping them safe!!”
Meanwhile, McGinness remains behind bars where he belongs:
“On a bright note, McGinness is now safely behind bars in Indian River County where he was arrested on our warrant even though he pinky promised he wasn’t going to actually hurt anyone!! His total bond is $76,000 and he will soon find his way to “Ivey’s Iron Bar Lodge” where I’m sure he will encounter a whole different kind of social media interaction with his new cellmates and friends!!”
See the full post (below):
This could’ve turned out way, way worse. Such an important reminder to remain vigilant with your kiddos and their online presence! Thoughts, Perezcious readers?
[Image via Brevard County Sheriff’s Office]