BALTIMORE — 48-year-old Steven Martin Bickling, plead guilty to the coercion and enticement of a minor on Thursday.
The guilty plea was announced by the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland.
According to the plea, in 2018 Bickling visited a website that offered live chat rooms with Asian women. Children could be heard in the background of some of the chat rooms, so Bickling asked a performer to show her daughter nude for $50.
The performer agreed and Bickling continued to do this at least 12 to 15 times in a two-year period. In one case when Bickling claimed he was drinking excessively, the child was only eight or nine years old.
On August 19, 2020, Baltimore City detectives and members of the FBI executed a search and seizure at Bickling's residence according to the plea agreement. During an interview with the police, he also admitted that he possessed pornographic videos of children, all saved on his laptop.
After searching Bickling's email, numerous solicited sexual images and videos of female children were discovered. Forensic analysis revealed his residence had a total of 21 images and 50 videos that depicted minors in sexually explicit conduct.
Bickling faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison, followed by up to a lifetime of supervised release.
