Police: NH man indicted on 40 counts related to
child sexual abuse
New Jersey Man Arrested For Alleged Role In
Cult-Related Child Exploitation
Authorities detail disturbing allegations involving child grooming and dehumanization linked to dangerous online neo-Nazi group
A 23-year-old New Jersey man has been accused of being active in a globally dangerous, neo-Nazi child exploitation group known as CVLT, which operates largely on the internet. Colin John Thomas Walker, from Bridgeton, was arrested on Friday, facing federal charges of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise. Prosecutors stated the group has preyed on vulnerable minors globally, accusing them of grooming children and encouraging them to produce sexual abuse material.
Authorities report Walker joined CVLT at least as early as 2020. According to the Department of Justice, the organization groomed and pressured minors, especially those with mental health challenges or histories of sexual abuse, to engage in dehumanizing acts. These included self-harm behaviors such as cutting and eating hair, drinking urine, and carving names of CVLT members onto their skin. "Victims were encouraged to engage in increasingly dehumanizing acts," officials noted, showcasing the depths of depravity within this network.
Walker is not alone; the federal indictment also includes three other individuals from diverse locations: Rohan Sandeep Rane of Antibes, France; Kaleb Christopher Merritt of Spring, Texas; and Clint Jordan Lopaka Nahooikaika Borge from Pahoa, Hawaii. Merritt is currently serving a 50-year sentence for previous child sex abuse crimes, and Rane has been incarcerated in France on charges related to child exploitation since 2022.
If convicted, the accused could each face minimum sentences of 20 years, with the maximum penalty being life imprisonment. This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, launched nationwide to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Upstate NY man receives 25 years in federal prison
for abuse of child
COLONIE — A 33-year-old Colonie man was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for his months-long sexual abuse of a child, federal prosecutors announced.
Thomas Berrington was sentenced Friday in federal court in Syracuse, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice. He pleaded guilty in September to repeatedly sexually abusing a young girl in order to record photos and videos of the abuse between June 2023 and January 2024. The girl was 8 when the abuse began, prosecutors said.
Spotlight News previously reported that Berrington was arrested in March 2024 following an investigation into sex crimes against a child. The case was investigated by the FBI, State Police and Colonie police.
Berrington was also sentenced to 25 years parole and will have to register as a sex offender once he’s released, prosecutors said. He will also have to pay a total of $5,200 in special assessments.
A Simi Valley teenager faces almost two dozen felony charges for allegedly using a minor for sex acts and possessing over 600 images depicting sexual exploitation of children and babies, authorities said Friday.
The 17-year-old was arrested Tuesday, after the FBI served a search warrant at the juvenile's home, according to the Ventura County district attorney's office.
That search and arrest followed an investigation the district attorney's Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Unit launched in August after receiving multiple tips regarding mass distribution of child pornography online, prosecutors said.
According to authorities, the teen is currently being held at the Ventura County Juvenile Facilities in Oxnard, and faces 15 felony counts of using a minor for sex acts and seven felony counts related to possessing and distributing child pornography.
The juvenile also faces two special charges for possessing more than 600 images of child sexual abuse material, as well as images depicting sadomasochistic acts, according to authorities.
The juvenile, whose name was not released, had an initial court appearance on Thursday and is due back for a pretrial conference on Dec. 31.
The Simi Valley Police Department and Ventura County High Tech Task Force assisted the FBI in serving the search warrant.
Man sentenced to over 100 years in prison for Yolo County child sex abuse gets early release
A Yolo Superior Court judge granted a compassionate release from prison for a 67-year-old man convicted of child molestation more than 11 years ago who is now suffering from an illness with a life expectancy of less than six months.
A jury found Ellis guilty of sexually molesting two children, along with failing to register as a sex offender and two counts of giving marijuana to a minor younger than 14 years old, according to the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office. Ellis had a 1995 conviction of child molestation involving two victims.
Prosecutors said Ellis was sentenced to 112 years and eight months to life in prison. Last week, Judge Daniel Maguire granted the convicted man a compassionate release after the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation petitioned the court recall’s Ellis’ case and resentence him.
The CDCR petition said Ellis suffered from a serious and advanced illness with a life expectancy of less than six months and meets the criteria of a compassionate release, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
When the court finds a convicted person meets the criteria for a compassionate release, there is a rebuttable presumption in favor of releasing the defendant from custody. Only if the court determines the convicted person is an unreasonable risk of danger to the public can Ellis be kept in prison, prosecutors said Tuesday in a news release.
Testimony at a Jan. 16 hearing indicated Ellis is wheelchair bound and able to perform daily activities. Prosecutors argued that crimes Ellis has committed do not require him to be mobile and his compromised mobility did not lessen any risk to the public.
Men in wheelchairs have been convicted of child sexual abuse.
On Thursday, Maguire felt the court had no discretion to keep Ellis in prison and determined he did not pose an unreasonable risk to public based on the rebuttable presumption and state law, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Ellis remained in custody Tuesday at California Medical Facility in Vacaville, CDCR records show. It’s unclear when he will be released.
Prosecutors said they did not know where Ellis will be living, since that CDCR process only begins after the court grants a compassionate release.
It had better be nowhere near children!
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