Man Convicted Of Using MySpace To Meet, Photograph Girls

An Orange County man who used social networking sites to meet young girls and photograph them nude was convicted by a Riverside County jurry on Wednesday.

Joshua David Threlkeld, 34, was found guilty of 79 felony charges, including kidnapping to commit lewd acts on a minor.

Prosecutors claimed Threlkeld created a fake modeling agency and a fake teenage spokesmodel to lure young girls on MySpace and Facebook to send him sexually explicit pictures. It was a scheme he spent two years operating to collect images from girls in 16 states and two countries.

“It’s frightening how quickly he was able to manipulate these girls,” Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Rob Hightower told reporters when Threlkeld was arrested.

But looking at the pictures soon graduated to taking pictures of some girls in-person.

At least four times, he met girls to take explicit pictures of them. Prosecutors say he had sex with a 13-year-old girl in the shower of a Palm Springs condominium in May of 2009.

Prosecutors pinpointed 80 victims, in all.

He could face life in prison when he’s sentenced by Superior Court Judge Edward Webster on April 11.