Donald Macarthur, 39, of Lehi, Utah, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Macarthur had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child pornography in two separate cases.
Macarthur used the internet to meet young girls on modeling and pro-anorexia websites. Macarthur then communicated with the girls through email and text messages. Specifically, Macarthur communicated with a thirteen-year-old girl in Tucson and a fourteen-year-old girl in Mississippi. During their communications, Macarthur manipulated them by acting as an anorexia coach, encouraging them to starve themselves, and then requesting that they send him sexually explicit photos. If the girls did not comply with his requests, Macarthur threatened that he would no longer coach them and ridiculed them. It is suspected that Macarthur possibly had 51 other unidentified victims.
Macarthur’s term of imprisonment will be followed by lifetime supervised release, with stringent sex offender conditions, including the condition that he register as a sex offender.
The investigation in this case was conducted by the Tucson Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Tucson.