A US court has handed down the longest-ever sentence for an online extremist. A case which echoed some of the harrowing details came before the Irish courts last year.
A 27-year-old Tennessee man was sentenced to 77 years in federal prison this week for producing child sexual abuse material, helping distribute videos of animal torture, and possessing and viewing child sexual abuse material.
The sentence represents the longest federal prison term ever handed down to a member of a so-called “nihilistic violent extremist” network, the Justice Department announced.
Last year, a case of child online exploitation came before the Circuit Criminal Court in Dublin when a Slovenian man was jailed for harassing and blackmailing a Dublin teenager he met while she was playing Roblox.
Kyle William Spitze of Friendsville, Tennessee, will also face lifetime supervised release, mandatory registration on state sex offender registries, and other sex-offender conditions once he completes his prison term.
Spitze was identified as a member of 764, a loosely organised online extremist network tied to satanism, and served as an administrator of one of its affiliated channels, known as “HarmNation.” According to prosecutors, groups like 764 use social media to spread graphic violent content and child sexual abuse material, frequently coercing minors into complying with extortion schemes.
The FBI opened its investigation in December 2023 after receiving tips that HarmNation members were circulating child sexual abuse material online. Investigators traced material to a channel run by Spitze, who used the online aliases “Crimhn,” “Criminal,” and “Criminaloli.” The channel reportedly included images and videos of underage girls who had cut themselves, with references to Spitze’s online alias written or carved into their skin, as well as footage of injured animals marked in a similar way.
When police carried out a search warrant issued in respect of Spitze in February 2024, his phone contained additional images involving two minor victims. One victim later told investigators that Spitze had threatened her into producing the material. Spitze admitted to investigators that his crimes were motivated by extremist ideology.
He later pleaded guilty to two counts of producing child sexual exploitation material, one count of aiding the distribution of videos depicting animal cruelty, and one count of possessing and intentionally accessing child sexual exploitation material.
US Attorney General Todd Blanche described the case as part of a broader effort to dismantle networks like 764, calling the underlying conduct an exploitation of children carried out under an extremist ideology.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau has personnel in all 50 states dedicated to investigating nihilistic violent extremist networks, and pointed to a sharp rise in arrests of such offenders over the past year.
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg called Spitze one of the founding members of Harm Nation and 764, saying the sentence — the longest ever imposed on a member of such a network — signals that authorities will not tolerate this kind of conduct.
U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III for the Eastern District of Tennessee and FBI Nashville Special Agent in Charge Terence G. Reilly both emphasised the vulnerability of the victims and pledged continued efforts to pursue members of similar networks.
The Spitze sentencing comes shortly after Judge Martin Nolan dealt with a case that, while not directly linked to 764 or HarmNation, reflected the same pattern of online grooming and coercion that US authorities say these networks rely on.
A Slovenian man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, was sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after admitting harassment and possession of child sexual abuse material. He was 21 when he began contacting a then 15-year-old Dublin girl on the gaming platform Roblox, coming to believe the pair were in a relationship and pressuring her to send explicit images and videos of herself.
Over more than a year, the court heard, he threatened to send the images to her family, friends and school if she tried to break off contact, and dictated rules governing her daily life — including who she could see, when she could leave the house, and requiring her to keep a video call running overnight so he could watch her. When she disclosed thoughts of self-harm, he told her to “do it better.” He also threatened to rape and kill her.
The girl’s family only learned what was happening after one of her friends alerted Gardaí. Detectives later tracked the man to a flight from Vienna to Dublin; he was arrested outside the victim’s home after her father spotted him loitering nearby. A search of his phone turned up intimate images of the victim as well as several images of child sexual abuse involving young children. During questioning, he told Gardaí he was part of online groups that shared footage of violent deaths and animal cruelty, and said he had become “addicted to gore” — language that echoes how US officials describe the media shared within nihilistic violent extremist networks.
In a victim impact statement read to the court by her father, the girl described losing her sense of safety and identity, turning to self-harm, and repeatedly considering suicide, saying it was only the fear of what he might do to her family that stopped her.
The court heard the man had been assessed as having several mental health difficulties, though without formal diagnosis. Judge Martin Nolan said the defendant appeared to believe he had done nothing wrong, and had caused the girl “great distress” through daily contact and blackmail over the images. With a maximum available sentence of 10 years, the judge set a headline sentence of five years, reduced to two and a half years to reflect the guilty plea and lack of previous convictions, backdated to account for time already served. He also imposed a 25-year order barring the man from contacting the victim or her family.
The US Justice Department describes nihilistic violent extremist networks as groups that target vulnerable people, particularly minors, through social media — grooming and coercing victims into self-harm, sexual exploitation, animal abuse, and in some cases acts of violence against themselves or others.
The prosecution was brought under Project Safe Childhood, a Justice Department initiative launched in 2006 that coordinates federal, state, and local resources to investigate and prosecute child sexual exploitation cases.
The FBI’s Nashville Field Office and Knoxville Resident Agency led the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kolman prosecuted the case for the Eastern District of Tennessee, with support from trial attorneys in the Justice Department’s National Security Division.