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A Florida man who pretended to be a teenager in exchange for convincing minors to send explicit pictures was sentenced to 25 years in prison and supervised release for life.
On Thursday, 45-year-old Dwight Castaldi was sentenced for coercing young girls to send him sexually explicit pictures of themselves as he pretended to be a teenager during online chats.
Castaldi previously pleaded guilty to production, distribution, and possession of child pornography, and online enticement of minors. Castaldi's sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith, who sits in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
In 2008, Castaldi started communicating with nearly six minor-aged girls, as young as 13, on various social networking websites. During his interactions, Castaldi told the girls that he was a teenager and sent the victims photos of an unidentifiable young man, telling them that they were pictures of him. Also during the chats, Castaldi stated that they were in exclusive relationships with him and persuaded the minors to take sexually explicit images of themselves and send them over to him.
During a law enforcement-ordered search warrant at Castaldi's Palm Beach County home in 2018, authorities found a number of electronic devices that contained hundreds of videos and photos of child exploitation and evidence of communication between Castaldi and the victims.
FBI Miami investigated the case, along with the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department and Huntington Beach California Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Schiller prosecuted the case.
Recently, there has been a slew of disturbing news stories involving children.
On October 25, a Florida man was arrested, accused of planning to kidnap a little girl, according to authorities in Clearwater.
Jacob Holman, 26, was arrested at his home in Clearwater on charges of attempted kidnapping and possession of child pornography. According to Florida authorities, Holman has previous arrests for domestic assault and drug possession.
He is currently incarcerated at a Pinellas County jail without bond.
Fran Nochella, who lives in the same neighborhood as Holman, told WFLA-TV on October 25 that she was "simply shocked."
"It's very disturbing," Nochella said. "You don't know what goes on behind closed doors."
According to the nonprofit Child Help, a report of child abuse is made every 10 seconds in the U.S.
Also, more than 3.6 million referrals are made to child protection agencies involving more than 6.6 million children every year. On average, the U.S. has the worst record of child abuse deaths, with four to seven children losing their lives to child abuse and neglect daily.
Newsweek has reached out to the Fort Lauderdale Police Department for further comment.
