March 21--A 79-year-old Lockport man was convicted of producing child pornography in a bizarre case in which he took sexually explicit photos of a girl he convinced to save "young boys from Satan'' by having sex with them, prosecutors said Friday.
John Gabriel, who is a former newspaper reporter and who had been in custody since being arrested in September 2013, was found guilty Thursday of one count of manufacturing child pornography, according to a release from the U. S. attorney's office and a spokeswoman for the office. Gabriel convinced the girl to become part of a bizarre "religious fantasy world" involving child porn, prosecutors said.
Gabriel took sexually explicit photos of the victim and posted them on an Internet website, purportedly for the purpose of recruiting troubled young boys to have sex with the victim, prosecutors said.
Witness testimony and court documents during a four-day trial detailed how Gabriel enticed a 17-year-old girl by creating a religious fantasy world in which he used the pseudonym "Sarah Weatherby" to email the victim under the guise of "being an angel '' who had selected the girl in a "program" run by the angels in order to save young boys from Satan, according to the release.
"Sarah" suggested the victim develop a "closer relationship with the defendant'' and, for example, Gabriel wrote: "Listen closely to those things John [defendant] tells you. You can have a happy life and you can leave all the dirty nasty sinful things behind,'' the release said.
According to emails received by the victim, the program dictated that if participants had sex with troubled young boys under the age of 18, then they were "assisting in training the boys in better behavior and to fight the devil,'' according to the release.
The emails claimed that each time the victim would have sex with a troubled boy, a wealthy benefactor would purchase $18,000 guide dogs for the blind and fund children's wings for hospitals, according to a court filing.
To bolster the "value and legitimacy'' of the program, other "participants'' under seven different names--all actually Gabriel--would email the victim telling her they were "working toward senior membership in the program, known as Priestesses,'' according to the document. "Each woman expounded on the benefits of the program,'' and encouraged her to join it, according to the filing.
According to the filing, an email from Gabriel, masquerading as one of the women, said: "You have to set up your first boy for training...part of the reason for all of this cloak and dagger is for our safety. There are people who would kill us,'' the filing read.
In a response to an email the victim sent with questions about having sex with boys, and the different training levels, Gabriel, pretending to be one of the women, wrote back: that "the Level Seven Training Priestesses have sex with different guys and it is all permitted,'' according to the filing.
A sentencing date has not been set yet, but Gabriel faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the release said.
