29 years in federal prison for Pine City man who used Snapchat to victimize hundreds of young girls

A federal judge on Monday sentenced a 26-year-old Pine City man to decades in prison for using Snapchat to groom and abuse more than 200 young girls - more than a dozen of whom he lured to be raped.

Caleb Vincent McLaughlin was sentenced to more than 29 years in federal prison on March 25, 2024, in what prosecutors called one of the worst child exploitation cases in recent Minnesota history.

Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz sentenced Caleb Vincent McLaughlin to more than 29 years in federal prison in what prosecutors called "by far, one of the worst online and hands-on child exploitation cases [Minnesota] has seen in recent history."

Schiltz said Monday that the sentence was among the longest he ever imposed, and he called McLaughlin's actions "shocking, even to someone like me, a federal judge who has been sentencing [child sex offenders] for over two decades."

https://www.startribune.com/29-years-in-federal-prison-for-pine-city-man-who-used-snapchat-to-victimize-hundreds-of-young-girls/600353906/