Man pleads guilty to extorting teen girl to have sex in Lake Forest area

A 21-year-old man pleaded guilty Thursday to extorting an underage teenage friend into having sex with him multiple times in the Lake Forest area.
Thomas Lee McElroy was scheduled to be sentenced July 6.
McElroy pleaded guilty to five counts of rape and a count of forcible oral copulation, all felonies. As part of the plea deal, one count each of forcible oral copulation, using an underage person for obscene matter and possession or control of child pornography were dismissed.
The victim, who was 17 at the time, was friends with the defendant, who was able to manipulate computer devices to send her text messages threatening that “bad things would happen to her family” if she did not have sex with him, according to Deputy District Attorney Mena Guirguis, who filed charges against McElroy in 2016.
McElroy sent himself similar text messages and showed them to the girl, saying he, too, was being extorted and harassed, Guirguis said.
McElroy raped the teen five times and forced her to perform oral sex on him two other times over a two-month period in the spring of last year, Guirguis said.
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The defendant “knew intimate things about her family,” which made the threats more credible, and he used multiple phone numbers and personas to truck the victim, according to the prosecutor.
The two had known each other for about a year at the time, but she was not interested in him romantically, Guirguis said.
The defendant also extorted money from the girl and had her perform sex acts that he videotaped, Guirguis said.
Eventually, she broke down and told family members, who were suspicious and alerted authorities, the prosecutor said.
Source: Oc Register