Oregon man who sexually exploited teenage girls in Canada gets 20 years in federal prison

A 37-year-old Happy Valley man who used social media to befriend teenage girls from Canada, convinced them to send him nude photos or videos of themselves and used threats to extort them to share more was sentenced Friday to 20 years in federal prison.

Kevin Robert McCarty posed as a 17-year-old singer named Wesley Tucker on social media and met one of the girls through Snapchat when she was 14, then continued communicating with her on Instagram, according to prosecutors.

She told investigators she felt “trapped” by McCarty’s threats and believed she “couldn’t get away.” She said she cried whenever a message from him popped up on her phone.

At times, McCarty demanded the girls film themselves having sex with others and share the videos with him or he threatened to kill a family member and told one girl: “Either do the deal or kill yourself, those are the only options,” according to prosecutors.

“The type of conduct that you engaged in was depraved. It was predatory and really unconscionable,” U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut told McCarty before issuing the sentence.

The case was investigated by agents from Homeland Security Investigations in Portland after officers from Vancouver, British Columbia, sought their help in September 2021 with a child exploitation investigation involving three teenage girls in Canada.

One girl McCarty communicated with became so depressed that she started to harm herself and her mother reported the girl suffered a mental health “breakdown” because she was terrified McCarty would follow through on his threats “to rape her sister” and “kill her grandma” if she didn’t send him nude pictures that he demanded, according to court records.

McCarty convinced the girl to share her social media password, then changed it and locked her out. He posed as her to befriend her friends online and attempted to orchestrate sex acts between the initial victim and boys from her account. At McCarty’s request, the girl recorded herself performing sexual acts and sent it to McCarty so he’d stop harassing her, according to the investigation.

“As if it wasn’t enough, first getting the naked photos of young girls and disguising yourself as someone else, but the extortion, the threats to their families, the encouragement to kill themselves, knowing that they are young, impressionable girls,” the judge said. “Honestly, I haven’t seen that kind of conduct to this level.”

Immergut accepted the jointly recommended sentence of 20 years for McCarty. In February, he pleaded guilty to one count of online enticement of a minor and two counts of sexual exploitation of a child.

The aunt of one of the victims captured screenshots of her niece’s messages back and forth with McCarty, who used multiple screen names and phone numbers, and reported the threats and extortion to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to court records.

McCarty told another victim that his name was “Robbie MacKenzie,” that he was 22 and lived in Riverside, California, none of which was true.

Federal agents raided McCarty’s home in Happy Valley on Nov. 18, 2021. He wasn’t home and was arrested that day at his cousin’s home in California. They seized two cellphones from him upon arrest and found multiple nude images of other teenage girls as well as images of the three girls from Canada, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Sussman.

After his arrest, McCarty attempted to contact the initial victim in Canada, calling her cellphone from jail 11 times, according to Sussman. On a recorded jail call, he even asked his own mother to text the victim’s phone and asked his mother to delete his Snapchat account, the prosecutor wrote to the court. McCarty was most recently living with his mother in Happy Valley, records show.

McCarty will face a lifetime of federal supervision and is ordered to register with both federal and state law enforcement as a sex offender.

None of the victims attended the sentencing or submitted victim impact statements to the court.

McCarty apologized to “everyone involved,” including his family. His mother, sister and brother-in-law attended the hearing in federal court in Portland.

“I’m sorry and I hope everyone can heal from it,” he said.

He said he’ll use his time in prison to “better himself and rehabilitate.”

Defense lawyer Robert Hamilton had argued for 10 years of federal supervision following McCarty’s prison term. Hamilton said the sentence was significant and 10 years of supervision would give McCarty a “light at the end of the tunnel.”

Sussman urged a lifetime of supervision, noting that McCarty has two prior stalking convictions. “That’s the only way we can have some reasonable assurance he will not offend again,” the prosecutor said.

Immergut agreed, ordering McCarty to face a lifetime of federal supervision.

“You are a predator and you’re dangerous to the community,” she said.

Deputy U.S. marshals immediately took McCarty into custody Friday after the hearing.