GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A Lansing man has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for coercing and enticing a minor online over two and a half years, training her to be a “sex slave.”
Ryan Van Stevenson, 33, pleaded guilty in December of 2014 and faced up to life in prison.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office reports that Stevenson was living in Lansing in 2012 with his wife and young children when he met a 15-year-old girl from Oregon online. Over time, he “molded her” into being his “sex slave” and got her to send him pornographic pictures of herself to his email address of “sexslavetrainer.” When the girl turned 18, Stevenson moved her to Lansing and into his home to fill the role of “sex slave.”
The girl moved voluntarily and was physically unharmed. The FBI searched Stevenson’s home on a federal warrant in August of 2014 and found thousands of pornographic images of the girl and images of Stevenson having sex with another girl who was 13 at the time. They also say they found a briefcase full of CDs full of internet child pornography, screenshots of web camera chats with other girls, baggies of girls’ or women’s underwear, a package from a convicted child pornographer and videos Stevenson had taken of unknown women and children from the waist down.
U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell described the case as “reprehensible” at sentencing on June 25.
The case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect kids from exploitation and abuse.
