▶ Watch Video: Violent, online network reportedly targeting, exploiting young children online
A member of the online extremist network “764” was sentenced to 77 years in prison for producing and distributing material involving child sexual exploitation and animal cruelty, federal authorities said Wednesday.
Prosecutors said the punishment set a new record for the longest federal sentence ever imposed on a nihilistic violent extremist, which is how law enforcement refers to people linked to an internet subculture that seeks to radicalize kids using digital platforms.
Kyle Spitze, 27, of Friendsville, Tennessee, was sentenced Wednesday. The decision came almost three years after the FBI began looking into the extremist group HarmNation, of which he was a member, for allegedly distributing child sexual abuse material and violent content involving young girls and animals, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
HarmNation is part of the larger “764” group, which federal officials have described as pursuing “the downfall of society” by seeking out vulnerable people, especially children and minors, online and forcing them to engage in criminal sex acts, self-harm and other forms of extreme violence.
U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche called Spitze’s arrest “one step toward justice for the families and children harmed by 764” in a statement.
“These types of crimes are the worst of the worst: preying on vulnerable children in the name of a violent and twisted ideology,” Blanche said. “Federal law enforcement will not stop until nihilistic violent extremist groups and their depraved members are identified and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Spitze ultimately pleaded guilty to two counts of producing child sexual exploitation material, one count of abetting the distribution of “animal crushing” videos, and one count of possessing and accessing child sexual exploitation material with the intent to view it.
During its investigation into HarmNation, the FBI found images and videos on Spitze’s cellphone, including material depicting girls, one of whom was seen with the word “crim” written on her chest in her own blood, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The word “crim” seems to relate to names for Spitze, who was also known as “Crimhn,” “Criminal,” and “Criminaloli,” the office said.
That girl told law enforcement that Spitze had threatened her to produce those images for him on a separate social media channel outside of HarmNation. Spitze later admitted to investigators that he “had a terrorist motive” in committing his crimes, prosecutors said.
John Eisenberg, the assistant attorney general for national security, said the length of Spitze’s sentence “sends a strong message that civil society will not tolerate such depravity.”
“The National Security Division will work tirelessly with our law-enforcement partners to identify and prosecute these predators and keep our children safe from this new form of terrorism,” Eisenberg said in a statement.
If he is released from prison, Spitze will be under supervised release for the rest of his life. He will also be required to register with state sex offender registries and comply with rules for registered sex offenders.