His first victim was 14, a girl he met on Instagram and coerced into sending him nudes.
Then came a sex tape of the girl that wound up on a porn website – and soon made the rounds at her school.
The girl found out and went to the police. Charges followed, though her Instagram exploiter would do one day in jail.
Two years later, he offended again – only this time, the feds got involved.
In U.S. District Court this week, Tyrone Sawyer Jr., 22, of Madison Heights, Michigan, was charged with sexual exploitation of children and distributing child pornography for allegedly videotaping himself having sex with a minor girl and then sharing the video on porn sites. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison on the exploitation charge, up to 30 years max.
How the predator drew in his victim
As with his first victim, the second didn’t know he was secretly taping her until videos of her surfaced on porn sites, court records show. One of her friends alerted her about the videos, and she went to the police, who got the FBI involved.
Sawyer was arrested this week and ordered jailed pending the outcome of his case.
According to an FBI agent’s affidavit, here is what landed Sawyer in federal court:
On March 9, 2020, a teenage girl filed a complaint with police about a man she met on Instagram in 2018. His name was Tyrone. She was 14 at the time, and they became friends and started video chatting on FaceTime.
During video chats, Tyrone asked the girl multiple times to take off her clothes and pose nude for him. She repeatedly refused, until he promised he would not record her if she did as he asked.
The girl then posed nude and engaged in sexual behavior as Tyrone watched from his screen – and secretly recorded her.
In November 2018, the girl would learn that a tape of her engaging in sexual behavior had been uploaded to Pornhub, which reported 42 billion visitors in 2019. She reported the video to Pornhub multiple times, noting it was child pornography under the website’s own terms and conditions.
But nothing happened.
‘Several of her classmates had found it and shared it’
A year later, the girl would learn the video was still on Pornhub.
“Several of her classmates had found it and shared it with each other,” an FBI agent wrote in his affidavit.
In her police report, the girl said that while video chatting with “Tyrone” and before the video was created, she told him she was 14. Tyrone asked the girl not to tell anyone “as he could get in trouble.” She also described Tyrone, including that he had a tattoo on his chest.
On March 19, 2020, 10 days after the girl filed her report, Southfield, Michigan, police served a search warrant to Pornhub for information about the video with the 14-year-old girl. The website provided the video to police, who confirmed the minor girl’s identity and then gave the video to the FBI.
“I reviewed the video, and the video meets the federal definition of child pornography,” an FBI agent wrote in his affidavit.
The girl also gave police the Instagram profile for “Tyrone,” who turned out to be Tyrone Zackary Sawyer Jr. – a then-18-year-old from Madison Heights.
A plea deal and one day in jail
On May 1, 2020, Southfield police detectives interviewed Sawyer at his home, where he “admitted to recording the video” of the girl.
“He stated that he believed (she) was 16 at the time the video was created,” an FBI agent says in his affidavit, adding “Sawyer then admitted to posting the video on Pornhub.”
A warrant was issued for his arrest. Charges followed.
On Sept. 14, 2021, after cutting a deal with the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, Sawyer pleaded guilty to one count of capturing and distributing an image of an unclothed person. He was sentenced to one day in jail and 39 months of probation, and he was ordered to register as a sex offender.
In exchange for his plea, the more serious charge of child abusive commerce activity was dismissed.
Victim No. 2
Two years after his sentence, police would receive another complaint about Sawyer, this one filed by a teenage girl who said her ex-boyfriend “had recorded them having sex without her knowing.”
The video wound up on a porn site called Xvideos.com, uploaded by a user whose profile name was “Freaky.”
It was Sawyer, authorities say.
The girl learned about the video through a friend, who said Sawyer had sent her a link to the video.
The girl saw the video. It was her, wearing a dark brown Louis Vuitton bonnet. She was with Sawyer, authorities say, who was filming as they had sex in what appeared to be a hotel room.
The girl, who was 16 when the video was made, provided a link of the video to Southfield police, who investigated and turned the case over to the FBI.
By then, the video had been deleted from the porn website.
But the “Freaky” profile was still there, along with the user’s picture. It was Sawyer, authorities say, a registered sex offender who had eight videos posted to his profile, including one that showed him having sex with the 16-year-old girl in the shower.
The video had a time stamp of April 19, 2020, just 11 days before the FBI showed up at Sawyer’s house about victim No. 1.
FBI searches Sawyer’s house
The FBI executed a search warrant at Sawyer’s house in Madison Heights.
“Sawyer admitted to running the Xvideos.com account “Freaky” and uploading several videos of him having sex with females to the profile,” an FBI agent wrote in his affidavit, adding that Sawyer was aware that some videos had been deleted from the profile.
“Sawyer stated that at least one of the videos deleted was of the 16-year-old girl, that he has known her for at least a year and a half, and that he “knew (she) was a minor when they met and had sex. “
“Sawyer stated he held the camera that recorded the video of them having sex,” the FBI affidavit states, adding Sawyer also knew “she was a minor when he uploaded the video of them having sex to his Xvideos.com profile.”
An attorney for Sawyer was unavailable for comment.
Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com