ANOKA COUNTY, Minn. – A former middle school paraprofessional who worked in special education within the Anoka-Hennepin School District has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for a sextortion scheme that targeted minors through social media and an online gaming forum.
Court documents in the case say Glen Robert Anderson, 24, of Coon Rapids used multiple internet applications and social media accounts for email, file sharing, and chatting with minors, including Snapchat and Grindr.
Anderson also owned and administered an online gaming forum. To participate in the forum, users were required to submit an application, which included the age of the user. As Anderson knew, many of the users were minors.
Between April 1, 2016, through Aug. 20, 2021, Anderson used his position as the forum administrator to groom minors to produce child pornography and engage in sexual activity with him, including by providing minors with in-game perks, privileges, and other gifts. For example, Anderson coerced a 13-year-old victim to engage in sexually explicit acts for the purpose of producing images and videos. Anderson later threatened to release those sexually explicit images if the victim did not respond to Anderson’s demands.
Other court documents including charges filed in August in a third-degree criminal sexual conduct case in Anoka County District Court describe that Anderson had repeated explicit sexual contact with a Coon Rapids minor starting when the child was age 14. The case also describes that Anderson lived in his father’s Coon Rapids home and that sexual contact between Anderson and the victim occurred at both Anderson’s home and the victim’s home.
Anderson pleaded guilty on June 28, 2022, to two counts of production of child pornography, one count of enticement of a minor, and one count of interstate communications with intent to extort. He was sentenced on March 15, 2023, before Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz.
Unlike Minnesota state sentencing that only requires offenders to serve two-thirds of their sentence incarcerated, federal inmates must serve a minimum of 85% of their sentence incarcerated. Anderson’s prison sentence will be followed by 12 years of supervised release.
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
This article originally appeared at Alpha News.
