A Melville man who solicited and coerced teenage girls to send him sexually explicit photos and videos through the social media platform Snapchat was sentenced Monday to five to 15 years in prison, Suffolk County prosecutors said.

Bradley Garyn, 29, had pleaded guilty in September to four counts each of use of a child in a sexual performance and disseminating indecent materials to a minor; five counts each of third-degree criminal solicitation and endangering the welfare of a child; three counts of first-degree coercion and one count each of possessing a sexual performance by a child and fourth-degree criminal solicitation.

“This defendant exploited numerous young and impressionable teenagers in order to satisfy his own prurient and repugnant desires,” said Suffolk District Attorney Raymond Tierney. “The actions by this defendant will not be tolerated in Suffolk County, the term of imprisonment he will serve for these crimes, as well as the orders of protection we have obtained on behalf of these victims, will ensure that this defendant cannot continue to engage in such abhorrent criminal behavior.”

David Besso, Garyn's Bay Shore-based defense attorney, said his client accepted responsibility for his actions.

"He apologized to the court and the families of the victims and expresses significant remorse for his actions," Besso said.

The district attorney’s office, in collaboration with the Suffolk Police Department’s Computer Crimes Unit, launched an investigation into Garyn in September 2020, after a juvenile female’s report to law enforcement that he coerced her into providing him explicit photographs and videos through Snapchat.

The four-month investigation in 2020 found Garyn established contact with multiple juvenile girls on Snapchat under multiple usernames, records show.

The defendant offered $10 payment in exchange for “selfies” or photographs of the girls’ feet, prosecutors said.

After establishing communication with the victims, Garyn solicited increasingly more explicit photographs and videos in exchange for higher amounts of money, up to $500, authorities said.

In one instance, Garyn coerced a female victim into sending him sexually explicit photographs and video by threatening to disseminate intimate images of her, prosecutors said.

Garyn was arrested in 2020 and search warrants were executed by law enforcement to seize and search his cellphones and computers, authorities said.

At the time of his plea, Garyn admitted using Snapchat to lure girls between the ages of 12 and 16 by offering them Amazon gift codes in exchange for pictures of their feet and faces.

Garyn, prosecutors said, later admitted he groomed the girls so that he could then coerce them into sending him nude and sexually explicit pictures and videos of themselves.

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