Aurora man who produced child porn using Musical.ly app pleads guilty

AURORA, Ill. (WLS) -- A suburban man has pleaded guilty after prosecutors said he posed as a 13-year-old on social media and allegedly threatened to kill girls if they didn't send inappropriate photos.

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Richard Barnett pleaded guilty nearly eight years after being federally charged for posing as a teenager.

Prosecutors said Barnett enticed at least four girls to produce pornographic images of themselves and sexually explicit messages were allegedly sent through a social media app.

Federal authorities said he created the profile "davidbanks1014" claiming to be a 13-year-old girl on the Musical.ly app on April 22, 2017.

The victims were from across the country and were between 9 and 13 years old, according to court documents.

He enticed the minors by chatting on the app and on the "live" feature.

He was arrested in October 2017; he was 39 at the time.

After years of on-again, off-again plea talks, Barnett pleaded guilty in February 2025 to one count of sexual exploitation of a minor and another count of making threats by means of interstate communication.

He was originally charged with one count of producing child pornography and one count of transporting child pornography by the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Northern District of Illinois.

Barnett is due in court for sentencing on May 19, 2025.

If you believe you are a victim of sexual exploitation, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is available at 1-800-843-5678.

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