Dover man gets 20 years in prison for 'catfishing' teens to get explicit material
May 3—A Dover man was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison in connection with a "catfishing" scheme that targeted high school-age girls, according to the U.S. Attorney for New Hampshire.
Evan Gadarowski, 29, was sentenced to 240 months in prison and 10 years of supervised release after pleading guilty last October to one count each of possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material.
"The defendant caused numerous minor survivors unimaginable trauma and pain. He manipulated high-school aged girls into thinking he was someone he was not and used this fictitious persona to gain their trust to obtain explicit images and videos from them. In some instances, when these survivors resisted his demands for more images, he threatened to disseminate the compromising images already in his possession to others," said U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young.
"The defendant's criminal conduct was calculated and horrifically cruel. He preyed on the survivors' deepest fears, causing them prolonged anguish. While the sentence imposed today will never restore what the defendant stole from the survivors, it is a step in their healing process and will also ensure the public is safe from the defendant for the next two decades."
Cases in which child victims fall prey to sexual predators "who take advantage of their innocence and threaten their physical and emotional well-being have risen at an alarming rate," said Lt. Eric Kinsman, Commander of state's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Gadarowski solicited, received, and disseminated sexually explicit images and videos depicting numerous minor victims between 2018 and 2021. Gadarowski "catfished" his victims by posing as a teenage girl, and using sexually explicit images and videos of one minor victim and adopting them as part of his fictitious persona to induce unsuspecting victims to send him explicit images and videos of themselves.
The investigation revealed that Gadarowski sold the images online.
