BURKE COUNTY, Ga. (WJBF) – A Burke County man has been sentenced to federal prison after admitting to coercing a child to produce sexually explicit images while playing online games.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia, Keyshawn Omar Cooper, 21, of Waynesboro, was sentenced to more than 16 years (200 months) in prison after previously pleading guilty to Production of Child Pornography.
According to the court documents, Cooper was in communication with an 11-year-old child in Missouri in May of 2021 and persuaded the victim to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of creating visual depictions that the victim then sent to Cooper.
Authorities say the child’s mother discovered the activity and reported it to the police in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, who enlisted the assistance of the FBI in identifying and locating Cooper.
Investigators say they determined that the victim and Cooper met online while playing “Grand Theft Auto,” and according to investigators, Cooper pretended to be a young girl to persuade the child to send sexually explicit photos.
Authorities say those images were found by agents, along with other sexually explicit images of children that were save on a phone seized from Cooper.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Cooper has also been ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution, to serve 15 years of supervised release, and to register as a sex offender after completion of his prison term.
