A 24-year-old California man was arrested and booked on Tuesday after allegedly posing as a girl online to entice more than 80 children into making pornographic videos.
Sacramento County Sheriff's Office identified the suspect as Demetrius Carl Davis. He was arrested on suspicion of committing lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years. He allegedly groomed more than 80 young victims into filming sex acts that he saved on his phone and computer.
According to the sheriff's office spokesperson Sgt. Rod Grassmann, Davis would pose as an 11-year-old girl named "Lizzy" to get in touch with the children, often ages six to 13, before persuading them to participate and record sexual actions with their siblings or other children. "What's particularly heinous about this is that this grooming led up to our suspect asking these children to perform sexual acts on their siblings, other relatives and other kids that they know and film it and then send that video to our suspect," Grassman said in a video.
After getting a tip about an account suspected of uploading child sex abuse material online, the sheriff's office started investigating Davis. A search warrant was served on Dec. 1, 2021. Screen recordings were found featuring children engaging in sexual acts. According to the investigators, they found files in cell phones and accounts that Davis was using to communicate.
"At that time, we did not have enough evidence to arrest him on site, but we took all those electronics," Grassmann said. "Over the last several months, we have forensically analyzed all of those and have identified 80 different victims and an additional 15 to 20 internationally, which we have not identified yet."
The United States Department of Homeland Security is also working on identifying the more than 15 other victims said to be residing internationally. "Like I said, we have identified 80 individual victims, and I'm certain that we will have more," Grassmann said.
The sheriff's office believed that Davis could have spoken with more than 100 children between late 2020 and Dec. 2021. Parents were asked to check their children's electronic devices and contact the Sacramento Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force if they see anything suspicious or think their child sent any illicit material to someone named "Lizzy." The authorities can be reached at 916-874-3002 or ICAC@sacsheriff.com.
