A man serving 40 years for running an online child-porn ring that ensnared over 100 young girls has died after what authorities believe to be a targeted stabbing attack by inmates at a Michigan prison.
Christian Maire, who led a group that enticed and blackmailed young girls to film themselves performing X-rated webcam shows, was fatally attacked by seven other inmates in the prison housing unit at Milan Federal Correctional Institution this week, Detroit News reports. He died several hours later after being taken to hospital. At least one of the inmates was armed with a makeshift “shiv.”
Michal Figura, another member of the ring they called the ‘Bored Group,’ was also injured. Two correctional staff were hurt trying to break up the fight. At least five other members of the Bored Group are also incarcerated at Milan. The prison has been placed on “limited operational status.”
Maire was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his role as leader of an international child-porn ring in which he and his co-conspirators posed as adolescent boys on dating sites and convinced their victims to strip, perform sex acts, and even cut themselves live on webcam, sometimes blackmailing girls who were reluctant to comply with their demands. They also shared pornographic photos of children as young as infants. From 2012 until their arrest in 2017, they victimized over 100 teenage and pre-teen girls.
“He’s gonna get the hell beat out of him,” one of his victims predicted after his sentencing.
Calling the death “a horrible tragedy,” Maire’s lawyer said that “it seems something like this should have been able to be avoided.”