Chicago man gets 30 years for enticing Filipino girls to produce sexually explicit photos, videos

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A Chicago man has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for enticing at least nine girls in the Philippines to produce sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves and send them to him, the Northern District of Illinois U.S. Attorney's Office said on Friday.

Karl Quilter, 58, pleaded guilty last year to a federal charge of sexual exploitation of children.

Quilter admitted in a plea agreement that he communicated with the girls via Facebook, Viber and Skype from 2017 to 2020. He referred to the minor victims as his "girlfriends" to manipulate and pressure them into sending specific types of photos and videos that he demanded, officials said.

Quilter also preyed on the victims' financial difficulties, using money transfers to their families to entice them to record the sexually explicit images. In a message to one 16-year-old victim in 2020, Quilter promised to send money to her family for medicine and food if she complied with his demands.

"If u do what I tell you... I will make sure u can buy food for 2 weeks and your medication," Quilter said in the message. "Think of your little sister that she can e[a]t for 2 weeks everyday 3 meals a day and u get well."

Quilter traveled to the Philippines in 2017 and 2018, and explicitly referenced his plans to have sex with several of the minors when he next visited the country in December 2020. He was arrested in Chicago in November 2020.

"Victim by victim, and message by message, defendant used social media and the internet to target and groom young Filipino girls," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley A. Chung. "This was not a one-time aberration, but rather a years-long pattern of predatory abuse and exploitation of minors."