An Arkansas man posing as a teen “coached” young girls on how to be anorexic, and he encouraged them to self-harm, perform humiliating acts and film child pornography, federal officials said.
Now he will serve the maximum allowable sentence.
Justin Lee Palmer, 44, of Jonesboro, was sentenced July 25 to 30 years in federal prison without the possibility of parole and a lifetime of supervised release on a production of child pornography charge, according to a July 26 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
Palmer pleaded guilty to the charge Aug. 4, 2023, court records show.
“A vile, disgusting, reprobate has finally received his due,” U.S. Attorney Jonathan D. Ross said in the release.
McClatchy News reached out to Palmer’s attorney for comment July 30 but did not immediately hear back.
Authorities first learned of Palmer during a 2020 investigation into the sexual abuse of a 9-year-old girl which was filmed and distributed to users on KIK, a messaging app, officials said.
The FBI identified Palmer, username “skipdinnergetmethin,” as someone who received the video of the abuse, according to court records.
Further investigation into Palmer revealed that he “used the screen name ’skipdinnergetmethin’ to pose as a 15-year-old girl and coach teen and preteen girls how to be anorexic,” officials said.
“Palmer instructed girls to perform a variety of humiliating and harmful acts while they were naked so that they would feel disgusted with themselves and be motivated to lose weight,” according to officials.
FBI Little Rock Special Agent in Charge Alicia D. Corder called Palmer’s actions “revolting and deplorable.”
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Predations ’far beyond the typical scope’
Investigators found saved conversations on Palmer’s phone between him and his victims in which he asked their weight “stats,” called them pigs and directed them to take photos and videos of themselves naked, court records show.
Palmer’s phone contained 38 images and 49 videos of one 13-year-old girl, 71 of which showed sexual acts, according to court records.
“Palmer’s predations went far beyond the typical scope of production cases,” Ross said in a sentencing memo, calling the abuse “calculated and cruel.”
He encouraged the girls to “drink toilet water, cut into their skin, urinate into a bottle and drink it, masturbate with household objects, and cover their skin in shameful phrases about their weight,” according to court records.
“The humiliation, self-hatred, and physical pain these victims — known and unknown — suffered as a result of Palmer’s lies and manipulation was, and likely continues to be, undoubtedly profound,” Ross said.
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