DETROIT (WXYZ) — The owner of a Detroit tugboat company has been charged with producing and attempting to produce child pornography, being in possession of pornography and receipt of child pornography, according to a criminal complaint filed in the United States Disctrict Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Wade Preston Streeter allegedly had inappropriate sexual interactions with at least seven male minors and stored images and video of many of those interactions, which was captured between June 13, 2003 and July 29, 2019.
According to a special FBI agent on the case since 2010, Streeter had carried on conversations with young boys through his Facebook account wade.p.streeter, and lured them to his home and his boat to engage in sexual activities.
One of Streeter's alleged first victims was around 14 years old when the assaults began.
Court documents state that the alleged victim who was born in 1997, was interviewed by FBI agents on Oct. 31, 2018. He told investigators that he began having interactions with Streeter on or about 2009. When the alleged victim turned 14, he said that Streeter would pick him up from his parent's house and take him to his home. The alleged victim told investigators that Streeter would give him alcoholic beverages, and would give him pills that were later believed to be Klonopin.
The alleged victim told police in an interview that one time, Streeter played a pornographic movie for the two to watch. The minor at the time became dizzy after taking pills and the last thing he remembered was Streeter touching his private parts. The alleged victim then said he woke up the next morning with just an undershirt and boxers on, and sas in the bedroom with Streeter. At that time, the alleged victim said that Streeter had also taken a photo of him with his phone.
The alleged victim eventually developed a drug addiction from his encounters with the defendant. At one point, the alleged victim said that Streeter told him not to tell his therapist that he had molested him when the boy was younger, the complaint states.
The criminal complaint also mentions a 12-year-old boy who Streeter met through his Facebook page.
Between Oct. 31, 2018 and Aug. 2019, the FBI conducted several interviews regarding Streeter's alleged sexual assault of minors. In these interviews investigators learned that the defendant allegedly "engaged in sexually explicit conversations with a number of other minor boys and that he had engaged in this conduct both at home and on his tugboat."
Court documents claim that Streeter inappropriately interacted with at least seven boys, including a then 13-year-old boy with autism.
FBI agents executed search warrants on Streeter's home on St. Paul Street in Detroit and on hi tugboat on Aug. 28, 2019.
During the warrant search, police say Streeter handed over his electronic devices and admitted to engaging in sexual conversations with minors on Facebook and had masturbated in the presence of a minor while watching pornography with him.
Electronic devices, including external hard drives, were searched and several videos and photos of boys with their private parts exposed were found, as well as images of the boys doing sexual acts. The images were captured from June 13, 2003 to July 29, 2019.
After the National Center for Exploited and Missing Children (NCMEC) got hold of the images and video, it was determined that six of the images were of known minor victims.
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