Level 3 Sex Offender from Boston sentenced to prison for soliciting children on Tik Tok

Boston man was sentenced today for coercing a minor he found on TikTok to send him child sexual abuse material.

“Hector Acevedo, 33, of Jamaica Plain, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris to 22 years in prison and five years of supervised release. In October 2023, Acevedo pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography by a recidivist.

Acevedo, a Level 3 registered sex offender, was previously convicted in Suffolk County Superior Court on multiple child and sexual exploitation offenses including trafficking of a person for sexual servitude, extortion by threat of injury, posing or exhibiting a child in state of nudity or sexual conduct, dissemination of matter harmful to minors, dissemination of child pornography and purchase or possession of child pornography. On Feb. 13, 2018, Acevedo was sentenced to five-to-seven years in state prison and three years of probation.

Just months after his release from prison, while on state probation, Acevedo contacted a 13-year-old girl via TikTok, claiming to be a 17-year-old boy, and asked for her phone number. He then began texting the victim, asking her to send nude pictures of herself to him, and eventually coerced the victim to engage in sexual conduct over video chat. Acevedo also asked for her address, although she did not give it to him. He later solicited other children online on other platforms, pretending to be a pre-teen or teenage girl, and asked them to provide him with nude pictures.

Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy; Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; and Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by the Arlington and Revere Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elianna J. Nuzum of the Major Crimes Unit prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.”-Massachusetts Department of Justice.