Kyle Fuchs - Repeat Sex Offender - Plead Down then became a Sick Twisted Internet Predator

The defendant had been charged once before, at age 17, on five counts of child rape involving a 15-year-old, although three of those charges were dismissed and two were reduced to the less-severe indecent assault and battery of a minor, according to court documents

Kyle Fuchs and his lawyer, Fred McAlary, say that what he did was a result of coming of age in a teenage culture that condones practices such as "sexting" and "hooking up" with "friends with benefits."

But prosecutor Gregory Friedholm, who noted that Fuchs was on probation for another sexual assault at the time some of the offenses occurred, called Fuchs a predator who showed "absolute disregard for the personal integrity of others."

And Salem Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead said Fuchs went well beyond the behavior of other teens. "This kind of behavior is an outgrowth of the sexting culture," said the judge, who believes it "opens the door for predators to come in and exploit" teens.

A 20-year-old Massachusetts man has been sentenced to eight years in prison after an investigator with the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force identified him and one of his victims in child-pornography pictures.

Kyle Fuchs was sentenced June 8 for raping three girls and posting online photos of his victims, according to a news release from the Utah Attorney General's Office.

In 2007, Steve Gamvroulas, an ICAC agent with the Utah Department of Public Safety, discovered 42 images of a victim that had been sent to a Utah man who was suspected of trading child pornography. A school cheerleading outfit, a New England Patriots jersey and a partial word on a sweatshirt were the only clues Gamvroulas had to work with to begin his investigation.

Over the course of time, Gamvroulas was able to use that information to identify the victim.

Massachusetts state police then seized Fuchs' computer, and investigators found 5,000 more explicit images of underage girls, including 174 pictures where the girls could be identified, according to the attorney general's office.

Fuchs had been having sex with a 14-year-old girl he had met on MySpace and posting explicit pictures of her on the social-networking Web site, the attorney general's office said.

"The ICAC Task Force should be proud of stopping a monster," says Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. "The persistence of the investigators to keep looking until they found this girl means that many more girls will not be abused."

A relationship spawned on MySpace turned criminal, police said, when a 19-year-old man had sex with a 14-year-old Swampscott girl and posted explicit photos of her online.

State police learned of the victim's nude photos from detectives in Utah and later alerted authorities in Swampscott, the prosecutor said. Taylor said she believed other jurisdictions, including Saugus, also would bring charges against Fuchs.

The defendant had been charged once before, at age 17, on five counts of child rape involving a 15-year-old, although three of those charges were dismissed and two were reduced to the less-severe indecent assault and battery of a minor, according to court documents

Fuchs had posted nude photos of the victim on MySpace, a popular social-networking Web site, which the girl had removed through the site administrator, the prosecutor said.

The defendant had also grown aggressive with her, once pushing the girl against a wall and later raising fears he was stalking her, Taylor said.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
.........Sarah Tofte

Fuchs came to the attention of authorities twice, the first time in the spring of 2006, when he was charged with raping a girl in Lynn. A plea agreement reduced the charges to indecent assault and battery, and he was given an 18-month suspended sentence.

All the while, investigators would later learn, Fuchs, then 17, was dating and having sex with a 14-year-old girl from Swampscott and taking explicit photos of her, even after being put on probation in the Lynn case.

In 2007, police in Utah contacted the Massachusetts State Police, after discovering what they believed were 42 images of child pornography sent by Fuchs to a person there. Some of the pictures were of Fuchs' young girlfriend, who was later identified by police.

Police seized Fuchs' computer and found more than 5,000 other images of underage girls in explicit poses, including 174 in which they could identify the girls.

Among those images was that of a Lynn girl, who was 15 when Fuchs took at least seven explicit pictures, and of a girl in Texas, who had, at Fuchs' behest, taken photos of herself with signs reading "Kyle owns this" next to her nude body.

Another victim said Fuchs had invited her to watch television at his father's house in October 2004, and while there, attacked her, pinning her to a bed and forcibly raping her.

A year after that, police learned, Fuchs, a football player, asked out a girl he met at a Salem High School football game. She said he took her to a secluded spot and forced her to perform sexual activity. Then, after he apologized, she agreed to go on a date to the Topsfield Fair. Afterward, he forcibly raped her.

Police also identified pictures of a girl who had dated Fuchs five years earlier, when both of them were 14.

Friedholm said Fuchs met most of the girls online.

He said Fuchs' conduct shows a "nonchalance and lack of regard" for the girls, one of whom fell into a severe depression and was hospitalized.

"This defendant is showing a pattern of predatory conduct," Friedholm said.