Lincoln Erickson pleaded guilty to child pornography charges five months after his arrest. The former doctor from Farmington Hills, Michigan was revealed to be part of a larger child sexual abuse network uncovered by the FBI.
Erickson first made headlines after a text message in which he wrote that he loves being a paedo was made public during the investigation.
Erickson worked at Detroit Medical Center's Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan. He sent a message on Telegram saying thathe loves other paedophilesand thinks they are attractive.
Erickson's arrest came following a bust operation involving Brett Tooman. Tooman was taken into custody in Ohio after he allegedly travelled to Toledo to sexually abuse a seven-year-old girl and a six-month-old infant he believed existed.
Tooman's arrest exposed a chain of text messages that later led to Jeremy Brian Tacon and Joshua Ronnebaum. The two exchanged texts with Erickson via a Telegram group. In one of their conversations, Erickson told Ronnebaum that he was once intimate with a boy and had fantasies of having a child with another man, claiming the child would be groomed from infancy to adulthood. Tacon and Ronnebaum's cases are ongoing.
'Start em young,' Erickson wrote.
The FBI discoveredvideos of minors engaged in lewd acts, as well as AI-generated images depicting nude children interacting with adult men on Erickson's phone. Prosecutors also claimed that the former doctor tried to convince a father to allow him to go to their home so he could bathe his young children. According to the Department of Justice, Erickson also confessed to sexually assaulting a three-year-old child belonging to a friend.
Ex-Detroit doctor who said, 'I love being a pedo' pleads guilty after FBI busthttps://t.co/L3puqPwwvCpic.twitter.com/DesBI7Ufx5
US Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. released a statement at the time of Erickson's arrest. 'This pervert was lurking among our trusted medical professionals. At the same time, he was feeding his disgusting appetites and plotting to abuse little children. Thankfully, the FBI caught him when they did,' hesaid.
Jennifer Runyan, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office, said there are serious consequences for anyone who records, possesses, or distributes child sexual abuse material.
Source: International Business Times UK
