(This Oct. 8 story has been refiled to update the headline for clarity)
(Reuters) - A New York man who posted a sex video of a 16-year-old girl on the adults-only website OnlyFans pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of distributing child pornography.
Matthew Richardson, 36, faces five to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he’s sentenced on Dec. 19. The plea agreement was reached in August.
Richardson’s attorney and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment until after sentencing.
Richardson’s case was cited in a Reuters investigation in July about complaints to police that child sex abuse material was featured on OnlyFans.
Richardson was arrested at a highway rest stop in Ohio in Dec. 2022 after running off with the New York teen. The two had met at a grocery store and began a sexual relationship. Soon after, Richardson recorded himself having sex with the girl. On Nov. 9, 2022, he posted the child sexual abuse video on his OnlyFans account under the pseudonym Skylar Ravenwood, according to plea documents filed in the case.
“It was a nightmare,” a relative of the girl told Reuters, which is withholding the person’s name to protect the teen’s identity. “She’s still not doing good.”
The Reuters investigation identified 30 complaints in U.S. police and court records that child sexual abuse material appeared on OnlyFans between December 2019 and June 2024. The investigation cited more than 200 explicit videos and images of kids on the site, including some adults having oral sex with toddlers.
OnlyFans did not comment on Richardson’s case. His OnlyFans account remained available on the platform for more than a year and a half after he posted the underage sex video. As of mid-June, the video featuring the girl appeared to have been removed. The account was shut down after Reuters asked OnlyFans about the case.
OnlyFans says no children are allowed on its website and that it vets all content and swiftly removes and reports any child sexual abuse material. The company also says it can deactivate accounts that violate its rules.
(So reported from Washington; editing by Julie Marquis)