Wisconsin Teen Gets 15 Year Sentence for Sex Blackmail via Facebook

Stancl posed as a girl online to trick male classmates into sending nude photos

Anthony Stancl Courtesy: Waukesha County Sheriff

(WAUKESHA, Wis.) - 19-year old Anthony Stancl of New Berlin, Wisconsin showed no emotion last week as he received a 15 year prison sentence for blackmailing dozens of classmates to have sex acts with him, according to news sources. He could have been sentenced up to 30 years.

In December, he pleaded no contest to two felonies, including repeated sexual assault of a child. The sentencing took place Wednesday, February 24th.

Stancl's lawyer, Craig Kuahry, said the Stancl family and he agree a 15-year sentence was reasonable for his crime, though Stancl himself was disappointed in the verdict.

Stancl was accused of intentionally creating a Facebook profile where he pretended to be a girl, and between approximately spring 2007 and fall 2008, tricking more than 30 male classmates into sending him naked photos or videos of themselves, then using the photos to blackmail them for sex.

He reportedly threatened to post the photos or videos on the Internet if the boys didn't engage in some sort of sexual activity with him, and at least seven of them said they were coerced into sex acts. Stancl documented those acts with a cell phone camera.

Authorities were alerted when a 16-year old boy came forward and said he was being blackmailed into acts of oral and anal sex with Stancl. The boy, then 15, was fooled into a relationship online with a girl who called herself "Kayla", and exchanged explicit pictures of himself with her. Later, "she" threatened to distribute his picture at school unless he did as he was told, and engaged in sex acts with Anthony Stancl.

The boy told police he agreed to at least four sex acts, but when "Kayla" asked him for a nude photo of his brother he went to his parents and revealed the sex scam. The police were then contacted.

Stancl was charged with 12 felonies in connection with the case, including 5 counts of child enticement, two counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child, two counts of third-degree sexual assault, possession of child pornography, repeated sexual assault of the same child, and making a bomb threat.

Stancl's computer held about 300 photos of underage males, the youngest being 15, police told the AP.

Prosecutors said that when Stancl was 13 years old, he was convicted of having sexual contact with a 3-year-old boy and served 10 days in secure detention.

The Judge said Stancl showed a gift for manipulation.

"Now that we know he has that skill, there'll always be the danger this could happen again," Judge Mac Davis said. "I am afraid of what he can and might do."

Stancl made an apology during the sentencing hearing, saying he was "deeply, deeply sorry for the pain and suffering I have caused," and he has learned to understand what his victims went through.

Anthony Stancl will get out of prison when he's 34-years old.

Attorney Kuahry told WKOW, "that's plenty of time to salvage his life."

View articles written by Bonnie King