BOSTON (WHDH) - An Illinois man has been charged with attempted sexual exploitation after he contacted boys from Massachusetts and other places through video games, engaging in sexually explicit conversations.
Court documents say that Zack Sawyer, 31, allegedly used XBox Live to contact two 13-year-old boys in Hampshire County, Mass. in May of 2010.
It is alleged that Sawyer asked one of the boys to send him nude photographs. When the boy refused, Sawyer threatened to rape and kill the boy. Sawyer also solicited sexual images from the second boy and threatened to rape him when the boy refused, claiming he had a drug that paralyzed people.
Sawyer is accused of contacting boys in Illinois and Virginia, making similar sexual advances and threatening violence if the children refused.
In August of 2014, after he had been served with an arrest warrant for the Massachusetts incident, Sawyer used the video game Minecraft to contact a 10-year-old boy in Virginia.
Sawyer was indicted on two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of children. The sentence would carry a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison.
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