RICHLAND, Wa. — A 65-year-old Richland man used Skype to make child pornography of boys in a river in the Philippines.
Allen Richard Smith can be heard on at least one video instructing the boys to perform for him via the person holding the camera on the other end of the video call, according to a federal prosecutor.
Smith then shared the videos online with other people using a Facebook account.
He admitted to investigators in 2020 that he'd had several Facebook accounts shut down for violating their policies, court documents said.
Smith recently pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of production of child pornography.
He already was a registered sex offender for 1995 crimes involving two Tri-Cities boys.
The plea agreement includes the dismissal of three additional charges for receiving and distributing child porn and for the commission of a felony sex crime by a person on the registry.
Smith faces a recommended sentence of 25 years in federal prison. The standard range for the production charge is between 15 and 30 years.
Sentencing is set Jan. 20 in Richland's Federal Building.
Surrendered passport
Smith has been in the Benton County jail since his arrest on June 24, 2020.
When he first appeared in Benton County Superior Court, he was ordered to turn over his passport and to stay off the internet, including Skype.
He had been charged in state court with 10 counts for dealing in depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Those charges were dismissed last October when he was indicted by a federal grand jury.
Court documents show that Smith first came to the attention of Richland police in March 2020 on a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the Internet Crimes Against Children database.
The CyberTip was about two videos that had been viewed before they were reported to NCMEC. The videos were said to contain "child abuse material of an illegal sexual nature," documents said.
A Richland detective discovered Facebook had reported one of Smith's username's to NCMEC for uploading suspected child pornography.
The detective confirmed it was Smith after getting a search warrant for account records from Facebook and Charter Communications.
A later search of Smith's George Washington Way apartment turned up "numerous electronic storage devices, including CDs and thumb drives," court documents said.
Children near and far
Investigators reportedly identified several children from the photos and videos on Smith's devices.
They included a child in Wisconsin who did not know Smith, along with a child in Guatemala whose mother had been sent money. That Guatemalan child was later removed from the home for his protection.
During the investigation, Smith admitted sending and receiving videos and images of children engaged in illegal sex acts, but "claimed that he sent them to friends to warn them about not sending that type of video or image by Facebook."
He denied requesting child porn videos and images from other Facebook users, documents said.
Smith also told investigators that he had chatted by video with a friend in the Philippines during the filming of the "river boys" video, but denied directing his friend or the boys to do anything.
"When asked about receiving images of underage males from another Facebook user, (Smith) said he was merely 'abiding' that person," court documents said.
'Direct the action'
Prosecutors say Smith sent multiple videos to someone online in February 2019. When that person reciprocated by sending a pornographic video showing three adult men, Smith replied that he was only sexually interested in videos and pictures showing young boys, documents said.
Evidence shows that in December 2019 and February 2020, Smith sent videos to another online user and received pictures in exchange. The two discussed the ages of the boys in the child porn, acknowledging that they were minors.
One video shows multiple boys between the ages of 8 and 15 engaged in various sex acts while in a river.
A voice on the video tells the person holding the cellphone camera to get closer, then gives instructions for the boys through the Filipino interpreter, court documents said.
At least one of the boys appears to respond to the instructions, which leads to the voice on the video saying he "likes that," documents said.
When sharing the video with the online user, Smith says that "you can hear my voice as I direct the action somewhat. Hehe. A friend wanted to show me the river boys."
Smith was convicted in Benton County in 1996 for inappropriately touching two pre-teen boys on separate occasions.
He was sentenced to seven years and five months in prison for his plea to two counts of first-degree child molestation.
