A Plymouth man pleaded guilty Thursday to cyberstalking seven women he knew for over 15 years, using more than 60 social media accounts across nearly 30 platforms to harass them with AI-generated sex ads.
James Florence Jr., 37, faced seven counts of cyberstalking and one count of possession of child pornography in U.S. District Court on Thursday, according to an announcement from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office. His sentencing date was scheduled for July 23.
Since 2008, Florence was hacking into the online accounts of women he knew personally or were acquaintances in his life — including two who were children when he started — to steal photos and their information.
Florence would alter the pictures with AI or other editing tools to make the women appear nude or engaged in sexual acts. Then, he posted the images online with the women’s names, work and home addresses and other identifying details.
At Florence’s home, investigators found dozens of pairs of women’s underwear and socks stolen from his victims, a custom phone case with the image of a victim and at least 11 digital wallpapers of the women on his phone.
They also found at least one photo of a woman taken when she was a minor, and 63 images and four videos of child sex abuse material, which showed girls between the ages of eight and 15 years old.
For each of his cyberstalking “campaigns,” Florence followed the same methods, the U.S. District Attorney said.
He created social media accounts pretending to be the victim, tagging their real social media account and aforementioned personal info on the photoshopped pictures he posted. He also used their hacked accounts to watch their activities, and set up notifications to monitor any changes to their information.
Florence urged others to “humiliate and expose” the women, tried to sell the pictures of one woman online and prompted strangers to contact the women directly. This resulted in demands for the women to send images of real sexually explicit content, under threats that the doctored images would be sent to friends and family.
In one instance, Florence created a collage of fake nude images of one woman, posted it to a website and wrote, “Post & Share Her Everywhere. Make The W**** Famous.”
Many of the women Florence targeted continue to receive harassing and threatening messages from unknown online users who found the content Florence created and posted, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office said.
Many of Florence’s victims continue to receive harassing and threatening messages from unknown individuals who encountered the content he created and distributed online.
Florence had significant knowledge of computers and was able to evade law enforcement due to his previous employment at software companies, and at an “emerging technology organization where he performed work for the United States government,” the office said.
