A 79-year-old Sylmar man has been sentenced to life in federal prison on various child sex charges, the FBI announced.
Edwin Bernard was sentenced Thursday, July 10 by U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton after pleading guilty to four counts of child exploitation, including possession, distribution and production of child pornography, as well as coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in sex, the FBI said.
A restitution hearing is scheduled for Oct. 9.
According to sentencing documents filed with the court, Bernard sought out vulnerable boys online, groomed and engaged them romantically, and then induced them to engage in sexually explicit behavior at his direction from at least 2009 to 2014.
Prosecutors said Bernard screen-recorded at least two victims, capturing their written communications and sexual acts on video. Bernard sexually abused a third victim in person and amassed child sexual abuse material for years, resulting in a collection of more than 115,000 suspected files on his devices, officials added.
By at least 2009, Bernard served as a moderator under the usernames “netzoomer” and “netzoomer16” on websites where men seek to engage sexually with minor boys, and through this connection he met a 14-year-old victim and instructed the boy to perform sex acts, including cutting to the point of bleeding, which Bernard recorded on at least two occasions without the victim’s permission or knowledge, authorities said.
In 2011, the defendant met another minor victim online and befriended him, later grooming him to provide him with nude photos, officials said. In March 2014, when the victim was 16 years old, Bernard flew from California to another state where the victim boy resided and rented a hotel room where he took the victim and “raped him,” according to the FBI.
From 2016 to 2018, Bernard encouraged others to engage in the abuse of children, specifically Michael Rushmer, with whom Bernard discussed Rushmer’s sexual exploitation of a 13-year-old boy, prosecutors said. Rushmer was arrested by the FBI and pled guilty in August 2019 in U.S. District Court in Binghamton, New York, to producing child sexual abuse material and engaging in sex with a minor. Rushmer is serving a 25-year federal prison sentence for his crimes.
On Dec. 5, 2019, the FBI executed a federal search warrant at Bernard’s home and seized digital devices, one of which contained more than 38,000 files of suspected child pornography and nearly 40,000 files of suspected child erotica, officials said.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified at least 207 real children whose sexual abuse was depicted in images and videos the defendant possessed. The FBI said there were multiple videos and images depicting infants and toddlers, as well as masochistic sexual conduct involving children under the age of 12.
Based on Bernard’s criminal history and conviction of abusing minors, the FBI believes he may have additional victims who have not yet been identified. The agency released his photo and is asking anyone who believes they were victimized or who has information about a victim to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.