A former Charlottesville bodybuilding coach was sentenced on Wednesday to 21 years in prison in a child sex and child porn case.
Elliott Atwell, 35, pleaded guilty last summer to one count of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of possession of child pornography.
According to court documents, Atwell portrayed himself as a virtual bodybuilding coach for high-school bodybuilders, offering to mentor high-schoolers online.
As he gained the trust of his young clients, he transitioned their conversations and bodybuilding training to the topics of sex and sexuality.
Under the guise of coaching, Atwell would encourage the minors to send nude photographs and videos of themselves.
In efforts to gain the victims’ trust and willingness to participate, Atwell sent them gifts, including a digital camera, and other sexual-related items, and then gave detailed instructions on what sexual activities he wanted the minors to perform and capture on video.
Atwell convinced at least six minors to record themselves engaging in sexually explicit conduct and then send those recordings to him, according to prosecutors.
The FBI searched Atwell’s iCloud account, and found that it contained more than 300 images and video files depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including images of prepubescent boys engaged in sex acts.
“This defendant targeted young people who put their trust in him as a coach and mentor and violated that trust to satisfy his own desires,” Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia Zachary T. Lee said. “I am grateful to the men and women of the FBI who tirelessly investigated this case and brought some semblance of justice to the victims. Cases like these remind us how vulnerable our young people are and how vigilant we must be to protect them from manipulative online predators.”
“FBI Richmond is unwavering in its commitment to seeking justice for victims of child exploitation. Today’s guilty verdict is the culmination of years of relentless work and dedication by our agents and analysts,” said Stanley M. Meador, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Richmond Division. “Together with our partners, the FBI will continue protecting our children by removing harmful predators from our communities.”
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice.
Led by U.S. Attorneys’ offices and CEOS, 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 more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.justice.gov/psc.
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Chris Graham
