A former Old Dominion University student is awaiting sentencing in federal court after admitting to producing child pornography, following accusations that he posed as a 14-year-old boy online to meet and sexually assault two Chesapeake teenagers. Gabriel Brooks, who was 22 at the time of the alleged assaults, used Wizz and Snapchat to contact his victims, according to federal prosecutors.
At the time, Brooks was living in Norfolk and attending Old Dominion University, and he began communicating with one of the victims through Snapchat, according to WTKR. He was also connected to an address in Centerville, Virginia, the station reports. Authorities say Brooks promised one teenager marijuana before arranging to meet him in person, then sexually assaulted the boy and, during a separate encounter, assaulted the boy's 14-year-old female friend as well.
Brooks met and assaulted two Chesapeake teenagers in total, per the station's reporting. The case became public in 2023, when investigators appealed to the public for information about potential additional victims, the outlet notes.
Federal Charges and an Arrest in Florida
The Chesapeake case was elevated to federal court, where Brooks was charged with coercion and enticement of a minor and aiding and abetting, according to WAVY. An affidavit in that case alleged Brooks had sexual relations with two 14-year-olds from Chesapeake in April 2023. Investigators used his cell-phone ping location to corroborate the victims' statements and eventually took him into custody in Florida, where he had started classes as a graduate student at Florida A&M University, the station reports.
The Chesapeake case is not the only one tied to Brooks. In November 2025, according to federal court records cited by the same outlet's report, he was sentenced for raping two girls he met online in Woodstock, Virginia — one of whom was 12 years old.
A Separate Woodstock Case With Its Own Charges
The Woodstock case unfolded on its own track in Shenandoah County. Gabriel Raen Brooks, 23, of Centreville, stood charged there with rape of a girl younger than 13, according to The Northern Virginia Daily. Woodstock police also charged him with two counts of using electronic communications to propose sexual acts with a child younger than 15 and one count of possessing child pornography, the paper reported, while Chesapeake police separately charged him with multiple felonies including two counts of rape of a child under 13 and producing child pornography.
Police alleged that two 12-year-old girls met Brooks at Woodstock Park and had sex with him in the back seat of his vehicle, according to the Daily's account of the criminal complaint. The complaint also states that Brooks recorded video of one victim performing a sex act on him, which investigators later recovered from his cellphone. The two girls reportedly knew him through Snapchat under the name “Kendrick.” A Shenandoah County grand jury indicted Brooks on Aug. 18 on three felony charges matching the date ranges of the alleged rapes, the newspaper reported.
NCMEC Data Point to a Growing Problem
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received more than 1.4 million online-enticement reports in 2025, including more than 80,000 sextortion incidents and more than 800 reports involving offenders who traveled to meet a child in person, per NCMEC data cited by WTKR. The station reports that online-enticement reporting increased 158% compared with 2024, and that early data suggests the increasing trend has continued into 2026.
NCMEC's Kathryn Rifenbark told the station that children are often contacted through common social media apps and that most reports come from electronic service providers, including social media companies. She said increased social media use means children are frequently targeted online, and that the rise of artificial intelligence makes it easier for offenders to victimize children. Offenders use fake online identities and fake profiles posing as children located near their targets to gain trust, according to the report.
Rifenbark said it was important for parents to be aware of online risks and have open and honest conversations with their children, per the station's report. NCMEC encourages parents to discuss online safety in age-appropriate conversations starting from an early age. Jeff Lurie, also quoted in the piece, said a parent's worst fear is a child being taken advantage of, and that parents do not know who is on the other end of a child's internet-connected devices. He recommends monitoring internet-enabled devices, including smartphones, tablets, and gaming consoles.
Other Virginia Cases Show a Pattern
Brooks's case is not an isolated one in Virginia. A Virginia Beach man, previously convicted sex offender Joseph Downing Barnes Jr., 35, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for sexually exploiting children online, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. In Roanoke, a Vinton man who used Snapchat to exploit at least nine underage girls online was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison in September, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Virginia. And a Lorton man was sentenced to 18 years in prison last year for sexually exploiting girls as young as nine on Snapchat, per the Eastern District's office.
Under Virginia law, producing child pornography is addressed under Virginia Code § 18.2-374.1, while using electronic communications to solicit a minor for prohibited sexual activity is a Class 5 felony under § 18.2-374.3. It remains unclear what sentence federal prosecutors are seeking for Brooks or when a sentencing hearing will take place.
