Teen Girl Gets Death, Rape Threats After Refusing To Send Nudes To Man On Snapchat: Sheriff

According to a colorful Facebook post from Sheriff Wayne Ivey of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, David McGinness was arrested on January 18 and charged with electronic threat to kill, extortion, lewd and lascivious conduct and computer solicitation of a child.

“Folks, there is no better time to talk to your children about internet and social media safety than right now and yesterday’s arrest of David McGinness is a perfect example of why we need to have those tough conversations with our kid,” Ivey shared in a post on the official Facebook page for the Sheriff’s Office.

Calling McGinness a “sorry carcass,” Ivey said “this case is just plain scary” before detailing how the suspect allegedly first met the victim — who is 14 — on Snapchat. Per authorities, the pair spoke for a “short period of time,” but the victim cut off communication with McGinness when she learned his age.

“A few months later. McGinness re-engaged the victim demanding nude photographs. When the victim refused to send the photographs McGinness began to make absolutely vile threats to rape and kill the victim and the victim’s family members,” said Ivey.

“McGinness went as far as to tell the victim he knew where they lived and would be there within an hour if the victim didn’t comply,” he continued, saying McGinness used the Snap Map feature — which allows users to display where they are in real-time — to learn her location. Per Ivey, the teen’s location services were turned on, allowing McGinness to see where she was.

The teen reported his alleged behavior to her parents, who in turn alerted authorities.

Ivey said the suspect was arrested “even though he pinky promised he wasn’t going to actually hurt anyone” and is being held on $76,000 bond.

The Sheriff concluded his post with a warning to parents, saying this case demonstrates why he always tells them “there is no better time than right now to talk with their children about internet and social media safety!”

“As parents, we want to allow our children to enjoy life but we also want to do everything possible to keep them safe, so if you allow your children to use social media or things connected to the internet, please routinely check all of the parental controls, privacy settings, and any other measures possible, to make sure that people like McGinness can’t get to them!” he wrote.

“Always remember… monitoring everything they do is not an invasion of their privacy, it’s just simply keeping them safe!”