HARRISBURG — Two men who were part of a group that set up a video conferencing website to livestream child pornography were convicted by a federal jury in Harrisburg, according to U.S. Attorney David Freed.
The website was used by William Augusta, of Carlisle, to stream the rape of a 6-year-old boy in 2015. Augusta, 21, is serving 60 years in prison after pleading guilty to federal child pornography charges in 2016. He is also serving a 45- to 90-year sentence on state charges after pleading guilty to child rape and other offenses in Cumberland County Court.
Two other men involved in the incident, William Staples of Kentucky and Dylan Heatherly of California, were the ones convicted in federal court.
A sentencing date has not been scheduled, according to Freed’s office.
Prosecutors said that between April 2014 and May 2016, Staples, 57, and Heatherly, 34, worked with at least 12 other men to create a secure space on a website, where “like-minded individuals” could regularly live-stream child pornography videos to each other.
In July of 2015, a Toronto police officer working undercover observed a 6-year-old being sexually abused on the site. Other website users were commenting and encouraging further abuse of the child in real-time, according to prosecutors.
Augusta was arrested the next day. Investigators found 10 other videos of him assaulting the boy, according to prosecutors. One of the videos included a man named Ira Task, who admitted he raped the boy in his Harrisburg home despite knowing he was HIV positive.
Task, who was HIV positive since 1994, was ordered to serve 17.5 to 40 years in prison.
