Patrick Connolly

Patrick Connolly is 36-year-old man from Northern Ireland who was arrested by U.S. authorities at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, on March 13, 2009, for computer intrusion. He is accused of hacking into teenage girls' computers and blackmailing them into producing photos and video of themselves in sexual positions and performing sex acts.Salon.com: Contractor accused of hacking for nude teen pics (March 17, 2009) Orlando Sentinel: Police say man hacked into teens' computers, demanded sexual images from them (March 17, 2009)

Authorities say that Patrick Connolly and his associate Ivory Dickerson searched the Internet for web cams, and approached girls through MySpace. They would chat the girls up and convince them to install the Bifrost trojan horse on their computers, software that would allow Connolly and Dickerson to monitor their activities, delete files, spy on their music and image files and even send popup messages from their own machines.Orlando Sentinel: Police say man hacked into teens' computers, demanded sexual images from them (March 17, 2009)

The men are alleged to have used the information they found to blackmail the girls, threatening to turn over the files that they found to their boyfriends and parents unless they sent sexually explicit photos or performed sex acts for their web cams. One Florida girl has said she was hounded for years, with Connolly even traveling to the United States and showing up at her place of work in 2004 when she was 16; a girl in British Columbia says was forced to perform sex acts—Connolly called her to "help" her get rid of the person who had "hacked" her computer. Complaints were filed in 2005 by three girls in Brevard County, Florida, and investigators were able to discover Connolly's associate, Ivory Dickerson. Orlando Sentinel: Police say man hacked into teens' computers, demanded sexual images from them (March 17, 2009)

Dickerson's North Carolina home was searched in November 2006, and authorities found more than a million pornographic images on his computer, including several hundred thousand involving children. Dickerson was arrested and sent to prison for 110 years. But even after Dickerson was in prison, the threats continued. In January 2009, authorities allege Connolly joined Facebook and started trolling for girls he had previously harassed. Investigators say they traced the new Facebook accounts back to Connolly and arrest him on March 17, 2009.Boston Herald: Police say man forced teens to send sex images (March 17, 2009)