Airman Posed As Teen On Roblox To Get Sexual Images From Underage Girl: Feds

NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. airman has been charged with coercing a 9-year-old girl to share sexually explicit images of herself, after he posed as a 13-year-old on the gaming site Roblox.

David Ibarra, 31, was arraigned Wednesday in a New York federal court after being arrested in February in Anchorage, Alaska, where he was serving on active-duty in the Air Force, prosecutors said in a statement.

A judge ordered him to be held pending trial on charges including sexual exploitation of a child. Ibarra’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors say the girl, who lives on Long Island, a suburban region east of New York City, met the man on TikTok in August and he asked her to communicate with him on Roblox, telling her he was a 13-year-old boy living in Texas.

From Roblox, he allegedly got the girl to text him from her phone, and eventually directed her to create explicit videos and images, while sending her money on Apple Pay.

Ibarra paid her $191 in a series of 17 Apple Pay transactions, prosecutors allege.

The girl’s mother eventually became aware of the messages. Posing as an older sister, she garnered more information about the sender by texting him from her own phone, and he ultimately sent her a selfie revealing part of his face, according to the indictment.

Investigators used Ibarra’s El Paso, Texas-based phone number, and searched his iCloud account to confirm his identity, according to prosecutors.

Under interrogation, the 31-year-old allegedly admitted to paying the girl for the explicit images, saying he thought the victim was 12. Prosecutors say he admitted to coercing other girls into sending explicit images of themselves, including one in New Jersey.