An undercover FBI agent busted an alleged pedophile living in Ventura by posing as both a dad and a daughter on online messaging platforms.
Trevor Lyons told the dad he would like to speak with his 12-year-old daughter, saying, “I’d love to see how much of a freak she is,” according to court documents. Lyons is accused of then adding the daughter as a friend on Discord and asking her if she would perform sex acts on him. The agent, meanwhile, was secretly controlling both accounts.
Lyons, 41, was arrested Monday and is accused of producing and distributing child pornography from around May 2020 to December 2024.
A federal grand jury charged him in a nine-count felony indictment with sexual exploitation, attempted sexual exploitation of a child to produce sexually explicit visuals, attempted enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity, and distribution of child pornography.
If convicted as charged, he faces a maximum sentence of life behind bars.
The undercover agent began exchanging messages with Lyons in a group chat on the Kik messaging app in August 2024, where the agent posed as a 43-year-old man with the username “UC Dad,” according to the indictment.
Lyons allegedly told UC Dad that he had a 17-year-old daughter of his own and asked UC Dad how old his daughter was. When UC Dad said 12, Lyons responded, “Oooof. A tad young but do you have pics? I have pics from when mine was 15,” according to the indictment.
Lyons continued to have conversations of a sexual nature with UC Dad on Telegram that month, according to the indictment.
On Sept. 9, 2024, Lyons allegedly added the girl as a friend on Discord then asked her age, to which the undercover agent responded, “12.”
He told her he was 40 and asked if she liked older guys and whether she had seen a penis before, the indictment said. The conversation continued to escalate.
He asked if she had performed oral sex and offered to teach her, the indictment said. He also sent an explicit photo and video before asking her to perform oral sex on him, according to the indictment.
On Dec. 17, 2024, law enforcement officers seized a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, an iPhone 16 and an iPad 3 from Lyons.
The indictment, which was filed in August, details a long record of child pornography allegedly distributed by Lyons as well as a May 2020 incident in which he is accusing of coercing a minor to engage in sexually explicit acts for photos that would be distributed as pornography. According to the indictment, he used a variety of usernames online including Carly, Herbdoc and DeFi Samurai.
Lyons was arrested by the FBI’s Ventura Child Exploitation Human Trafficking Task Force, a collaboration between the FBI and regional law enforcement agencies to rescue minor victims and investigate and arrest those involved in child exploitation and human trafficking. The task force recently arrested six additional people in Ventura County during a two-week operation in August targeting the production, distribution and possession of child sexual abuse material.
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