California Man Convicted at Trial of Child Sexual Exploitation Offenses

PHILADELPHIA - United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that John Douglas Burch, 56, of Los Angeles, California, was convicted late yesterday at trial of all charges against him: use of an interstate commerce facility to entice a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct, use of an interstate commerce facility to entice a minor to engage in prostitution, and two counts of traveling for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.

The defendant was charged with those offenses by indictment in January 2024, arising from a nearly decade-long scheme to sexually exploit children online and "train" them to be his "sex slaves."

This "training" included, among other things, the requirement that the girls listen to explicit audio recordings, watch violent pornography, create pornographic images and videos and transmit the content to Burch over the internet, and have sexual encounters and commercial sex with adult strangers, which Burch would encourage and promote.

As detailed in court filings and proven at trial, Burch caused a minor female (Minor 1), starting when she was 14 years old and continuing until she was 17, to produce and transmit over the internet numerous sexually explicit videos and images depicting Minor 1 engaged in sex acts.

Burch also directed Minor 1 to engage in commercial sex acts with various men in Pennsylvania and caused Minor 1 to create visual depictions of the sex acts and send them to Burch, as proof that Minor 1 engaged in the conduct.

As further proven, between 2014 to 2015, Burch twice traveled from California to Pennsylvania and sexually assaulted Minor 1 at a Montgomery County hotel.

The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on August 25 and faces a maximum possible term of life in prison with a 10-year mandatory minimum term, a minimum of five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release, a $1,000,000 fine, and mandatory restitution.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit projectsafechildhood.govLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link..

The case was investigated by FBI Philadelphia's Fort Washington Resident Agency and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Justin Ashenfelter and Anthony Carissimi.