-
A Huntington Beach man who was a former coach and referee in the American Youth Soccer Organization is to face sentencing on Monday for indulging in child pornography.
-
The US Attorney’s Office has noted that Oster could face between 15 and 30 years of jail time for his crime.
-
Further, he pleaded guilty to the charges leveled against him regarding his involvement with child porn.
An ex-coach and referee of Huntington Beach of the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) is to receive sentencing for involvement in child pornography.
Mark Phillip Oster allegedly took a camera to a location to monitor an underage girl who was undressing. According to a court statement, the girl was a dependent who was under his care, and persuaded another underage child in another country to send naked photographs of herself to him.
Youth Soccer Coach-Referee’s Distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material on the Dark Web
Oster acknowledged in his plea agreement that he had uploaded photos of child pornography to a website on the dark web that was established for sharing images and videos of child pornography and for discussing child sexual abuse. His case highlights the pervasive nature of these dark web networks, which have become a major target for global law enforcement. It was also seen in a recent international sting that dismantled a massive network sharing child exploitation material.
As stated by the United States Attorney’s Office, Oster provided information he had about the way underage pornography is created in the Philippines. He then described how child sexual exploitation works throughout Southeast Asia.
In addition, the defendant was found to have posted child pornography materials on Skype and Facebook, saving child pornography in his Google Photos account, as stated by a court document.
Mark Phillip Oster Awaits Sentencing After Confessing to Multiple Counts of Child Exploitation
In a hearing last year, the defendant pleaded guilty to the allegations raised against him regarding underage porn. Oster also confessed that he frequently posted child porn media files on dark net chat rooms, where he was an active participant.
According to Oster’s plea statement, he had also created child pornography with an underage victim who was under his “care, custody, and control” during the time of the offenses.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided his house after his arrest, and recovered hard drives in March and August 2021. The officers found that Oster possessed several pictures of child pornography that he created with the underage girl, who was less than 12 years old at the time.
Furthermore, Oster “enticed, persuaded, and directed” a second child, who was approximately 13 years old, and lived outside the United States, to produce child pornography by taking pictures of herself and sending them to the defendant from 2020 through July 2021, according to federal prosecutors.
He also confessed to having lured the second victim’s mother to take nude photos of her daughter’s body. Then, he sent gifts and money to both the mother and her child in exchange for the media files.
The Attorney’s Office noted that the second victim only indulged in the activities with Oster because of her financial situation. Thus, Oster leveraged the poverty status of her and her mother to fulfill his sexual desires.
Also, he was linked to the AYSO and was connected to a four-count US federal litigation in 2021. He is currently faced with several charges of underage porn.
His sentencing is set for Monday, November 10, and prosecutors believe that he could be sentenced to 15 to 30 years in jail.
