A Jefferson County man has admitted to forcing a 15-year-old Arkansas girl to send him sexually explicit pictures of herself through Instagram, the U.S. Attorney’s General Office reported.
David Paeper, 20, pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography on Aug. 26 in the U.S. District Cout in St. Louis. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 1, court records show.
The charge is punishable by five to 20 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s General Office.
According to the guilty plea, the girl contacted the Rogers (Ark.) Police because Paeper was sexually extorting her through Instagram. In November 2024, the girl and Paeper connected on the messaging platform, and she had sent images of herself to Paeper at his request.
Paeper asked for more images and video, but the girl initially refused to send more. Paeper then threatened to send the images to the girl’s mother unless she sent more images and videos during an exchange of messages on Nov. 22, 2024, the guilty plea said.
The girl continued to send images to Paeper. After she sent a video, the girl wrote “can I be done now,” according to the guilty plea.
Rogers Police discovered Paeper also sent sexually graphic images of himself to the girl, and investigators determined Paeper lived in the St. Louis area, the guilty plea said.
On April 23, 2025, Paeper was located were he worked by a St. Louis County Police detective. The detective interviewed Paeper in an unmarked patrol car, and Paeper admitted to having contact with the girl through Instagram, according to the guilty plea.
Paeper told the detective that the girl initially told him she was 17, and she later told him that she was 15. The detective found an image of the girl on Paeper’s phone, and he seized the phone over Paeper’s objection, the guilty plea said.
After obtaining a search warrant, investigators reviewed Paeper’s phone, and they found an image file and six videos of the girl, according to the guilty plea.
The Rogers (Ark.) Police and the St. Louis County Police investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes is prosecuting the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For information, visit justice.gov/psc.