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Press Release

Suburban man gets 35 years for sexually exploiting minors through Skout

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Texas
Friendswood man also possessed pornographic images of babies and toddlers

HOUSTON – A 24-year-old local man has been ordered to prison for sexual exploitation and coercion and enticement of minors, announced U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery.

Benjamen Charles Slaughter pleaded guilty Aug. 4, 2021 to sexual exploitation of children, receipt and possession of child pornography. 

Today, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown sentenced Butler to 420 months in federal prison. Following the lengthy sentence, Slaughter will be on supervised release for the rest of his life, during which time he will have to comply with numerous requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the internet. He was also ordered to pay $15,300 in special assessments and to register as a sex offender.

Slaughter met the then 15-year-old female victim through a the social media website Skout, during which time he convinced her to become his “submissive.”  Slaughter was actively involved in the bondage, discipline, dominance and submission world and had frequented the website Collarspace, a site for similarly-minded individuals. 

Slaughter demanded one victim to engage in sex with strangers and wanted her to do so without using protection.

He had also started receiving child pornography prior to becoming an adult and created a Dropbox account to store some of his collection. Authorities conducted numerous search warrants for various social media and online storage accounts as well as Slaughter’s residence. Those revealed numerous images of child pornography, some of which involved babies and toddlers in provocative situations with animals and adult male genitalia.

Slaughter has been in custody since being determined a danger to the community and a flight risk, where he will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation.  

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri L. Zack prosecuted the case, which was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section leads PSC, which marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and identifies and rescues victims. For more information about PSC, please visit DOJ’s PSC page. For more information about internet safety education, please visit the resources link on that page.

Updated April 26, 2022

Topic
Project Safe Childhood