Sylmar man to serve life in prison for child exploitation

A San Fernando Valley man who sought out boys and exploited them over a period of at least five years was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to various counts of child exploitation.

Edwin Bernard, 79, of Sylmar sought out boys online, groomed and engaged them romantically, and then induced them to engage in sexually explicit behavior from at least 2009 to 2014, according to an FBI news release.

He pled guilty last week to four counts of child exploitation, including possession, distribution and production of child pornography, as well as coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in sex.

The FBI believes there may be additional victims who have not been identified yet.

Bernard screen-recorded at least two victims, capturing their written communications and sexual acts on video. According to the FBI, he sexually abused a third victim in person. He was found to have a collection of child abuse material, including more than 115,000 suspected files on his devices.

Around 2009, Bernard served as a moderator with the usernames "netzoomer" and "netzoomer16" on websites where men seek to engage sexually with minor boys. Through this connection, Bernard met a 14-year-old victim and instructed the victim to perform sex acts and other harmful acts, which he recorded at least two times.

In 2011, Bernard met another minor victim online, and several years later, when the victim was 16 years old, Bernard flew from California to another state where the boy lived to meet him. He then took the boy to a hotel room and raped him, according to the FBI.

The FBI executed a federal search warrant at Bernard's home in 2019 and seized his digital devices, where more than 115,000 files containing suspected child sexual abuse material were found.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified at least 207 real children whose sexual abuse was depicted in images and videos that Bernard possessed.

There were multiple videos and images depicting infants and toddlers, as well as masochistic sexual conduct involving children under the age of 12. Based on an analysis of the metadata, Bernard had been collecting the files for over a decade, according to the FBI.

Anyone who believes they were victimized or who has information about a victim is urged to contact the FBI at 1 (800) CALL-FBI.