Feds say Bay Area child porn investigation uncovered plot to ‘rape and murder multiple women’

OAKLAND — A Fairfax man allegedly solicited help a plot to “rape and murder multiple women,” including an ex-girlfriend, without knowing the person he was talking to was an undercover federal agent, prosecutors revealed in court records.

Ryan Kannett, 38, is a registered sex offender who pleaded guilty last March to possessing and distributing child pornography. Kannett faces a minimum of 15 years in prison, but prosecutors say this defendant’s actions went well beyond the typical case involving child sexual abuse material.

Kannett allegedly told an agent with Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE, of a chance to torture his ex-girlfriend to death and “benefit monetarily from the films we sell of the event afterwards.” Authorities say that in addition to videos depicting child rape and physical abuse, depictions of “violent deaths, mutilated human bodies, and animal cruelty” were found on Kannett’s electronic devices.

“I’m offering the opportunity to both enjoy the experience of helping me to brutally rape, torture, mutilate and snuff my ex,” Kannett allegedly told the HSI agent, who was based in Tennessee. He later added, “I know it sounds beyond the scope of actually being a real and legitimate offer, but I assure you that it is.”

Additionally, Kannett allegedly discussed what prosecutors describe as a chilling “test run”: To kidnap and murder a girl, adding that age “5 sounds perfect” and that a “snatch and grab strategy sounds perfect.”

“The better at it we will become and the more we can really enjoy the experience,” Kannett allegedly told the agent. “So, I personally not only think we don’t have to limit ourselves to one age and experience, but we shouldn’t.”

Kannett is set to be sentenced on Wednesday afternoon, before U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam. Prosecutors have asked for a prison term of 19 and a half years, noting that Kannett faces a mandatory minimum of 15 for the child porn distribution offense. Kannett’s defense has not yet put forward their own sentencing submission, court records show.

“No child sex abuse material is appropriate nor should be normalized, but these materials were particularly grueling considering the bestiality, rape, mutilation, and age of the children depicted,” assistant U.S. Attorney Alexis James wrote in a sentencing brief. “Further, the defendant didn’t just possess and distribute these materials, he plotted to make them. He plotted to rape. He plotted to kill.”

Kannett was arrested and charged in August 2020, after an undercover probe tied him to child pornography distribution and lewd chats on the KIK messaging application. He allegedly used the screen names “Sir Sicko” and “Sick(expletive)2Taboo4You,” and openly admitted to being a sex offender, prosecutors allege.

The sex offender status stemmed from a similar incident. Kannett allegedly arranged to molest a 10-year-old girl, believing he was talking to the child’s legal guardian. But once again, it turned out to be an undercover cop in disguise.

During a 2020 search of Kannett’s home, prosecutors seized several electronic devices, a quarter-ounce of methamphetamine, and a large machete-style knife, according to court records. They found nearly 18,000 files depicting child sexual abuse on one memory card alone, as well as another 15,000 with pornographic videos and pictures depicting unidentified subjects whose ages were difficult to determine, prosecutors said.

They also found a 170-page instructional guide on “how to practice child love,” which includes instructions for how to pose as a minor online to lure children, including by feigning interest in horses or Justin Bieber, and by downloading images of a child and posing as that person, according to prosecutors.

©2022 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at mercurynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.