The 40-year-old married father-of-two who was dubbed the mastermind of the child pornography ring called the 'Bored Group' broke down in tears as he was sentenced yesterday.

The perps

The businessman from Binghamton, New York, and the other members of the ring were sentenced at the US District Court in Detroit.

For five years, Maire and eight other handpicked, like-minded online predators - some of them family men boasting advanced degrees and impressive computer skills - pretended to be teenage boys in private chatrooms to coerce girls as young as 10 years old to perform sexual actions on camera for the men's sexual gratification.

Court records filed in the case described a highly organized group in which each of the nine members had a specific role to play.

Some were 'hunters' in charge of luring teenage girls from social media sites like Gifyo, Periscope, YouNow and MyLOL to an unmoderated private chatroom known in court filings as ‘Website A.’

Maire was the primary ‘hunter,’ along with Jonathan Negroni Rodriguez, 37, of West Hollywood, California, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday.

Others, like 36-year-old Brett Sinta, of North Carolina, and Arthur Simpatico, a 47-year-old IT worker of Ontario, were 'talkers’ whose job it was to engage the victims in small talk and gradually persuade them to perform sex acts on web camera. Simpatico also used his technological skills to help the group avoid detection by law enforcement. He also tipped off the gang about the FBI being onto them.

Sinta was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison on Wednesday for his role in the vile venture.

Then there were 'loopers,' who would step in if a girl became suspicious of the men in the chatroom masquerading as teenage boys. 'Loopers' were tasked with convincing reluctant girls to stay in the chatroom.

The 'Bored Group' first came together in 2012. For reasons unknown, the group typically included the word “bored” in the title of their chatrooms, such as justsoboared, borednstuff, and boredascanbe — hence the name “Bored Group.”

In 2017, FBI agents acting on information obtained two years prior from a Michigan child pornography suspect busted Maire’s ring.

Agents traced IP addresses to identify individual members of the porn ring, including Michal Figura, 36, an IT specialist at the University of Pennsylvania and a married father of two young children, who prosecutors said masturbated to child pornography five nights a week before bedtime.

The victims (trigger warning)

The group's victims ranged in ages 10-17. They include a girl who was coerced into having sex with her dog, another who was encouraged to masturbate with a banana.

Most of the victims identified by investigators were vulnerable girls, suffering from eating disorders, engaging in self-harm and suffering from suicidal thoughts.

The sexual exploitation has left many of the young women shattered and exacerbated their existing mental health problems.

One victim nicknamed 'Princess' was manipulated by Arthur Simpatico into engaging in a sex act.

A socially awkward student who was an elite dancer enrolled at ballet school and battled anxiety and loneliness was talked into producing more than 60 videos of herself performing sexual acts.

Her mother wrote in a letter read aloud in court that her daughter missed an entire year of school and was taking medications.

‘Her dance dreams died,’ the letter stated. ‘This has taken years from her. Years.’

A troubled 16-year-old girl from New Orleans was encouraged to cut herself and repeatedly perform sex acts on camera after being blackmailed by the predators, who she said threatened to harm her and her family members if she refused to comply. "They even named everyone in my house, so I knew that these threats were serious" she said.

"I started hurting myself and I was in and out of the hospital for self-harm and attempted suicide," she said. "I know they knew I was hurting, because they would watch me cry and some would even ask me to self-harm while they watched."

The victim, now aged 20, told the court that to this day, she cannot use a computer and struggles with anxiety and depression. "I am a 20-year-old girl standing here today, facing the monsters that destroyed my childhood due to child exploitation".

The mother of a 14-year-old girl who was targeted by the online predator aged 10 said her daughter has had night terrors almost every night and has been struggling at school as a result of the trauma.

‘Thinking back to those days causes me to cry myself to sleep, wondering when the monsters will stop haunting me,’ another victim told the judge.

Maire, the ring leader, said that he was sick and pointed a finger of blame at his addiction to pornography. ‘Pornography led me down a very dark road’. He pleaded with the judge through tears for a chance to rehabilitate himself.

Maire had three supporters speak on his behalf in court Wednesday: a Greek Orthodox priest, a family friend who is a judge in Georgia, and his father, who apologized to the victims, and who described his son as a loving and doting father. "With proper counseling, he can leave prison a better man ... I still love him."

His accomplice Simpatico also issued an apology, saying he hopes to ‘be a better person in the future.’

Several parents and victims attended the sentencing. Some spoke while others sat quietly as the victims told their gut-wrenching stories.

Prosecutors had asked for a life sentence for Maire, calling him a chronic liar and manipulator who masterminded an "egregious crime syndicate" that sexually exploited and psychologically scarred preteen and teenage girls.

"Almost all if not all of the minor victims in this case are depressed or in therapy, and several have suicidal intentions," Assistant U.S. Attorney April Russo stated in court documents. "Some of them have attempted suicide."

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