NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A 31-year-old man was charged in a 104-count indictment for sexually assaulting and trafficking a teen boy over five months in Upper Manhattan, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Matthew Halstead was charged with sex trafficking, sex trafficking of a child, use of a child in a sexual performance, promoting and possessing a sexual performance by a child, criminal obstruction of breathing and endangering the welfare of a child, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
According to court documents, from March 1, to Aug. 6, the 16-year-old boy – who had run away from Child Protective Services – stayed with Halstead in his Washington Heights apartment. During this time, Halstead repeatedly sexually assaulted and trafficked the child.
On Aug. 6, police responded to what appeared to be a roommate dispute, and the NYPD’s Manhattan Special Victims Squad and the DA’s Human Trafficking Unit launched an investigation, which remains ongoing, officials said.
According to authorities, Halstead took numerous photos and videos of the child engaging in sexual conduct with himself and other men, and then used those photos and videos to solicit men to pay for sexual acts with the child.
Halstead posted the photos and videos on publicly available social media accounts like X, formerly known as Twitter and also used the Telegram app to not only seek out individuals who would pay to have sexual encounters with the child, but to attempt to convince other children to engage in sexual acts with him and to sell sexual acts to others, prosecutors said.
Officials allege that Halstead exchanged sexually explicit images and videos of other children, some as young as toddlers, with Telegram users. In these conversations with unknown Telegram users, he also discussed "trading" access to children with the users.
"These allegations are horrifying, and I thank my Office’s Human Trafficking Unit and our partners at the NYPD for thoroughly investigating and unraveling this alleged sex trafficking operation," DA Bragg said.