HOMESTEAD, Fla. – A Homestead Senior High School student was charged Wednesday with extorting sex from two girls, State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said Wednesday in a news release.
According to prosecutors, Terry Fenelon, 18, used the telephone messaging app KIK Messenger to send messages to a 15-year-old girl and a 16-year-old girl.
Authorities said Fenelon told the girls that his name was "Dre" and threatened to harm the victims' families or expose nude photos of the girls if they didn't continue to send him more photos. One of the victims told police that she was unsure how Fenelon received the initial semi-nude photo of herself.
Prosecutors said the girls agreed to perform a sexual act on Dre's "cousin," Fenelon, so that Dre wouldn't send their nude photos to family members on Facebook.
According to an arrest affidavit, one of the victims said she had sex with Fenelon after he continued making threats against her family. She said he even told her where her 6-year-old niece got off the school bus and said that if she wanted to see her niece again then she would comply with his demands.
The other teen told detectives that she performed oral sex on Fenelon after he sent her a screen shot of her nude pictures and threatened to send it to her father.
Prosecutors said the girls began to suspect that Dre and Fenelon were the same person and both came forward to police and school administrators.
"This is exactly the kind of awful crime that our recent revenge porn legislation aimed to curtail," Fernandez Rundle said. "This forced sexual humiliation of young women was meant to satisfy a sick need for power. We know that there are more victims who suffered at the hands of this young man. This is the time for other victims to come forward and reclaim your pride."
Fenelon is charged with sexual battery by coercion and threats/extortion.
Prosecutors said the investigation is ongoing, because there are indications of additional victims.
"The details of this case are extremely disturbing. Although social media has many positive uses, this incident serves as a good reminder that parents need to monitor their children's social media activity and warn them of the negative consequences when it is improperly used," Miami-Dade County Public Schools spokesman John Schuster said in a statement. "We will continue to teach our students about the rights and responsibilities of digital citizenship, because their safety, security and well-being continue to be the school district's highest concern."
A knock at Fenelon's home in Homestead went unanswered Wednesday.
Fenelon was arrested last month by Miami-Dade police on similar charges in a separate case.
According to an arrest report, he targeted a 15-year-old girl in December who was friends with his sister.
Detectives said he convinced the teen to send him a nude photo of herself on the app and then shared the picture on Facebook.
The girl told police that she begged Fenelon to take the photo down, and he forced her to perform oral sex on him in exchange for removing the post.
According to the report, Fenelon threatened to post nude photos of the teen a second time if she didn't perform oral sex on him again.
Fenelon is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center without bond. Anyone who believes they were victimized by Fenelon is asked to call the State Attorney's Office hotline at 305-547-3300.