Joel Davis, a Columbia University student who was nominated for the Nobel Prize for his work in attempting to end sexual violence, has been accused of child sex crimes.
According to The Columbia Spectator, Davis, who is accused of possessing child pornography on his phone, was arrested in New York City on Tuesday, June 26.
Furthermore, authorities said that Davis admitted to the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old boy.
Prior to his arrest, Davis was the founding executive director of the international organization Youth to End Sexual Violence and served as a youth ambassador for the United Nations special representative on sexual violence in conflict. He was also on the committee of the International Campaign to Stop Rape & Gender Violence in Conflict.
Davis was charged with attempting to sexually exploit a child, enticing a child to engage in sexual activity and possessing child pornography.
via The Washington Post:
Over the course of several weeks between May and late June, prosecutors say, Davis exchanged text messages with undercover FBI agents, trying to arrange meetings with a 9-year-old girl, an 8-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy. Davis allegedly sent the undercover agents sexually explicit photos and videos of children as young as infants and made clear that he wanted to have sex with children of any age, according to a federal criminal complaint.
He also admitted to meeting a 13-year-old boy on the dating app Grindr, speaking with him on Snapchat and engaging in sexual activity with the boy at Davis’s Manhattan apartment in June, according to the complaint.
“Having started an organization that pushed for the end of sexual violence, Davis displayed the highest degree of hypocrisy by his alleged attempts to sexually exploit multiple minors,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. said. “As if this wasn’t repulsive enough, Davis allegedly possessed and distributed utterly explicit images of innocent infants and toddlers being sexually abused by adults.”
According to the criminal complaint, authorities came across Davis’ activities when an FBI agent posted a message on a “fetish” website where people leave ads soliciting children for sex. Davis responded with the screen name “yngperv22″.
After obtaining a search warrant, authorities found a “trove” of child pornography on Davis’s cellphone. The full details are graphic — we will not be posting them here — but they can be found at The Washington Post.
In addition to studying at Columbia, Dais studied law, archeology, and anthropology at the University of Oxford and French studies at the Sorbonne in Paris.
If charged, he faces up to 70 years in prison.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWUpEgiKHDs
