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NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. airman has been charged with coercing a 9-year-old girl to share sexually explicit images of herself after he posed as a 13-year-old and chatted with the child on TikTok and the gaming site Roblox.
David Ibarra, 31, was arraigned Wednesday in a New York federal court after being arrested in February in Anchorage, Alaska, where he was serving on active duty in the Air Force, prosecutors said in a statement.
A judge ordered him to be held pending trial on charges including sexual exploitation of a child. Ibarra's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ibarra was serving as an air transportation specialist Senior Airmen, which mainly manage cargo, according to an Air Force spokesperson.
Prosecutors say the girl, who lives on Long Island, a suburban region east of New York City, met the man on TikTok in August and he asked her to communicate with him on Roblox, telling her he was a 13-year-old boy living in Texas.
He allegedly got the girl to text him from her phone and eventually directed her to create explicit videos and images, while sending her money via Apple Pay.
Ibarra paid her $191 in a series of 17 transactions, prosecutors allege.
The girl's mother eventually became aware of the messages. Posing as an older sister, she garnered more information about the sender by texting him from her own phone, and he ultimately sent her a selfie revealing part of his face, according to the indictment.
Investigators used Ibarra's El Paso, Texas-based phone number and searched his iCloud account to confirm his identity, according to prosecutors.
Under interrogation the 31-year-old allegedly admitted to paying the girl for the images, saying he thought the victim was 12. Prosecutors say he acknowledged coercing other girls into sending explicit images as well, including one in New Jersey.
Ibarra has been “in an unpaid status” since his arrest, Air Force spokesperson Erin Eaton said via email. It is not clear what other military discipline he could face.
