KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — Updated at 2:35 p.m. June 4 with information from indictments.
A 24-year-old Forney man accused of coercing underage girls to send him nude photos on Snapchat has been indicted on 12 felony charges in Kaufman County.
Authorities believe Taylor Blake Craft would use Snapchat to solicit nude photos of underage girls and then threaten to share the images if they didn’t have sex with him.
Taylor Blake Craft faces 16 felony charges and is being held in the Kaufman County jail in lieu of $2,675,000 bail, jail records show. Craft was indicted in the Kaufman County cases. He faces four felony charges in Dallas and Rockwall counties.
Investigators have identified more than 15 victims and believe there could be more, Kaufman County officials said.
Hundreds of photos and videos of nude females were found on Craft’s phone. Many of the images appeared to be of minors, records show.
"It is our belief based on the volume of photographs that were in Craft's possession, there are many other victims who have yet to be identified," the Kaufman County Sheriff's Office said in a written statement.
Among the charges against Craft is one in connection with the sexual assault of a Coppell teenager, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
Authorities started investigating Craft after a 14-year-old girl told police in Connecticut that a Snapchat user asked her to send nude photos of herself. The Snapchat account was later linked to Craft, the warrant says.
Craft told investigators he would use the nude images to coerce teenagers into having sex with him. He said he used the “sexual extortion scheme” on seven minors, the warrant says.
The warrant details the sexual assault of a Coppell teenager who had worked with Craft. The teenager told investigators she believed Craft was her age.
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The teenager said Craft added her on Snapchat and started asking her to send him pictures, eventually asking for nude photos and videos, the warrant says.
Craft told the teen “he would pay her or buy her anything she wanted for sending him the videos,” the warrant says.
Eventually Craft persuaded the teenager to meet him. Craft pressured the teenager to have sex with him when they were alone together in his SUV, the teen told investigators.
“I just felt pressured to do it,” the teenager told investigators, according to the warrant.
Craft used several Snapchat accounts to contact teenagers, including the Coppell victim.
After the assault, the warrant says, Craft used one of the accounts to threaten to expose the teenager’s photos because she wouldn’t talk to Craft anymore.
Craft faces 16 felony charges:
- two counts of aggravated kidnapping
- two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child
- three counts of sexual assault of a child
- two counts of possession of child pornography
- two counts of online solicitation of a minor
- two counts of threatening to publish intimate visual material
- one count of possession with intent to promote child pornography
- one count of online solicitation of a minor – sexual conduct
- one count of sexual performance by a child under 14
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