Man was a youth pastor, music leader and teacher
A Palmyra man, who was a youth pastor, music leader and teacher, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for using social media to coax underage boys into sending him nude pictures and videos, according to Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw.
Sean Higgins, 32, in turn would use those sent photos and videos to blackmail his victims into performing sexual acts on themselves for his enjoyment, the prosecutor continued.
Higgins committed the crimes in 2020 while serving as the youth pastor and music leader at Harbor Baptist Church in Hainesport. He was also a teacher at the Harbor Baptist Academy, a private K-12 school that is housed in the same facility.
Higgins pled guilty earlier this year to four counts of endangering the welfare of children (three first degree and one third degree). Each count represented a separate victim. He was not charged with having physical contact with his victims, and none of the charges involved members of the church congregation or students at the school, according to the prosecutor.
The investigation began in 2020 after a youth in Berks County, Pa., contacted Snapchat and reported that he sent nude photos of himself to someone he believed to be an unknown female. The unknown female, who in actuality was Higgins, had threatened to expose his nude photographs after they exchanged pictures.
The investigation revealed that Higgins would adopt the persona of a teenage girl and utilize Snapchat and Instagram to begin a conversation with a juvenile male, introducing himself as Julie Miller. After establishing a rapport, he would suggest that they trade photos. Higgins would then send pictures of an unidentified female teenager, according to the prosecutor.
In return, Higgins would often receive nude photos that the victims took of themselves. Immediately upon receiving those images, he would take a screenshot of the victim’s friends list that was visible on the forward-facing social media platform. Higgins would send that screenshot back to the victim and threaten to send the nude photos he had just received to the victim’s friends list unless the victim did exactly what Higgins demanded.
According to videos obtained during the investigation, victims would often beg Higgins to allow them to stop, according to the prosecutor.
Higgins must serve 85% of the term before becoming eligible for parole. The sentence was handed down in Superior Court in Mount Holly before the Hon. Christopher J. Garrenger, J.S.C. Higgins has been lodged in the Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly since being taken into custody at his residence in October 2020.
The investigation was conducted by the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office High-Tech Crimes Unit, the Cinnaminson Township Police Department and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations – Cherry Hill, all of which are members of the New Jersey State Police Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.
Multiple state and local agencies assisted in confirming the identities of additional victims once investigators became aware of their existence.