ST. LOUIS – A man from a Turks and Caicos island just north of the Dominican Republic appeared in St. Louis court on Tuesday for sextorting a Missouri teen.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District, Alexander Gardiner, 23, from Providenciales, is accused of attempting to coerce a minor into engaging in sexually explicit conduct between Sept. 24, 2018 and June 30, 2023.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Gardiner allegedly made contact with the Missouri minor through social media and enticing the teen to send him sexually explicit images.
According to his detention order, Gardiner demanded money from the minor by threatening to send those images to others and later did post an explicit video on social media. The U.S. Attorney Office said images of other teenage victims were discovered on Gardiner’s iCloud account.
Court records said Gardiner used the screen names “noahmonn” on Snapchat, “algardiner33” and “algardiner22” on Google and “jewelsbaits” on X.
Gardiner was arrested at the Miami International Airport on August 8. He was later indicted by a grand jury on May 22 for one count of coercion and enticement of a minor. He pleaded not guilty in court on Tuesday.
Enticement charges are punishable by at least 10 years in prison with a maximum term of life.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says those who believe they may have been targets of a sextortion attempt should contact local law enforcement or the FBI by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI, contacting a local FBI office, or reporting it online at tips.fbi.gov or cybertipline.org.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has detailed information on resources for sextortion victims, including videos and discussion guides to help explain the problem to children and adults.
NCMEC also has a step-by-step guide on how to report pictures or videos of children to social media companies and flag pictures so that the companies will seek out and remove the images.
