DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — A Kentucky man charged with human trafficking is accused of using Snapchat to befriend a 13-year-old girl, threatening her family, and arranging sexual encounters between her and men in Bucks County.
Bucks County District Attorney Jen Schorn said the mother of a 13-year-old girl contacted detectives after she found communications between her daughter and a man later identified as 29-year-old Zachary McCauley, of Louisville, Kentucky.
Investigators said McCauley posed as a 17-year-old boy and befriended the girl on Snapchat, eventually asking her to send illicit photos. He set up an account for the girl on the dating app Grindr, lying about her age. Schorn said he threatened harm to her family.
“Not only was he sexually exploiting her, but he was manufacturing child sexual abuse materials, and he was trafficking her to other men,” said Schorn.
Through Grindr, Schorn said, McCauley arranged meetings for the girl with three men in Bucks County. One man immediately questioned her age and ended the interaction.
The other two men — 67-year-old Jon Van Ingen, of Buckingham Township, and 42-year-old Randy Quinn, of Coopersburg — were both charged with statutory sexual assault and creating child sexual abuse material, as McCauley watched and recorded the acts via Snapchat, according to investigators.
“[McCauley] used grooming tactics to lower her inhibition, and then those tactics evolved into threatening to inflict harm upon her mother if she did not comply with his demands,” Schorn added. “This case exemplifies just how long the reach is of a child sexual predator using these social media platforms.”
Van Ingen and Quinn are free on $150,000 unsecured bail.
McCauley is charged with human trafficking, sexual exploitation of children and other counts. He is in custody in Kentucky, awaiting extradition to Bucks County.