Youth Pastor Used Blackmail To Obtain Sex Videos From Young Boys

POSING as a teenage girl named ‘Julie Miller’, Sean Higgins, above – youth pastor and music leader of the Harbor Baptist Church in Hainesport, NJ – preyed on boys aged between 12 and 15 and tricked them into sending him nude photos via social media.

Higgins, 30, who also works at the the 75-student Harbor Baptist Academy in Hainesport, then blackmailed his victims, threatening to share the pictures among their friends and acquaintance unless they provided him with sexually explicit videos.

Higgins would appear to be the brother of the church’s senior pastor, Pat Higgins, and a son of Harbor’s founder, Dennis Higgins. In May this year he posted on his YouTube channel a sermon that he he says was delivered by his father.

According to this report, he faces 28 criminal counts including first-degree aggravated sexual assault and manufacturing child pornography.

Investigators said Higgins would record these videos and use them to further blackmail his victims.

Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina said:

When a boy would send a nude photo of himself, Higgins would instantly transform and warn the child, ‘I’ve got you,’ and threaten to circulate that photo if the child did not engage in additional sexual acts on camera for Higgins’s sick gratification. The desperation of these young boys who were put in this position by this predator is truly heartbreaking.

These charges underscore the importance of the responsibility of parents to monitor their children’s Internet activity, and also having those frank and uncomfortable conversations about the dangers of sharing naked photos or other embarrassing images of themselves. Cyberspace can be scary, but vigilance and simple common sense are effective defenses against online predators.

At least two of six victims reported what was going on. A boy in Berks County, Pennsylvania, contacted Snapchat about the blackmail and a boy in Alabama went to law enforcement, Coffina said.

According to this report, in most cases, Higgins demanded that the boy go into a bathroom then expose and touch himself while Higgins recorded it, prosecutors said.

Victims would often beg Higgins to be allowed to stop engaging in sexual conduct, but Higgins would demand that they complete his instruction.

Higgins has been was charged with six counts of first-degree manufacturing child pornography, first-degree aggravated sexual assault, five counts of second-degree distribution of child pornography, second-degree sexual assault, six counts of third-degree possession of child pornography, six counts of third-degree child endangerment and fourth-degree criminal sexual contact.

He was also charged with fourth-degree obstruction and contempt after police said he refused to open his door to them last Thursday.