Bryan Rogers: Man arrested for asking girl to send him video proof of her adoptive father's sexual abuse
Prosecutors say Bryan Rogers convinced a teenage girl to record herself being sexually assaulted by her adoptive father
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Federal prosecutors have accused a Wisconsin man of sexually exploiting a 14-year-old girl he met online after she revealed her adoptive father was molesting her.
Bryan Rogers met the teenager on the online game Roblox, where the two exchanged a series of private messages. After confiding in him about the alleged repeat sexual assault, he offered his help with one condition: she would have to send him video proof.
Prosecutors said the 31-year-old drove to the girl's Tennessee home to pick her up on 14 January once she provided him with video of the rape.
Investigators said he then destroyed the girl's phone and bypassed tollways and gas stations to avoid detection.
Rogers is now jailed in Madison. The girl's adoptive father has been arrested on rape charges in Tennessee.
Prosecutors are seeking charges against Rogers that include the sexual exploitation of a child to produce a visual depiction. His attorney did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, online jail records show the girl’s adoptive father, Randall Pruitt, has been charged with rape. Mr Pruitt is currently being held on $2m bail. It is not known whether he has yet had a chance to enter a plea.
In messages later obtained by the FBI, Rogers appeared to convince the teenager to record her adoptive father assaulting her.
“I know you don’t want to do it but I don’t exactly want to see your dad rape you either,” Rogers wrote to the girl. “But we need clear video evidence.”
Rather than handing the footage over to authorities, Rogers allegedly tried to hide the girl from her family, telling her in one message, “Understand that I can get in a hell of a lot of trouble for harbouring you”.
“Unless you can prove what he did they will just release you back to him if we get caught,” he added.
Days after her disappearance, the girl’s parents held a press conference in which they pleaded for her safe return, unaware of the video evidence showing Pruitt allegedly raping his adoptive daughter.
“It’s like having your soul ripped out of our body,” he said at the time. “You can’t think. You can’t eat. You can’t sleep. You can’t rest. Life has just ceased for us since the day she left.”
The whereabouts of the girl and her siblings have not been disclosed, though it has been reported she is back in her home state.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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