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Plymouth man pleads guilty to cyberstalking more than half a dozen Massachusetts women
Over 16 years, the man used 62 accounts across nearly 30 online platforms to harass and impersonate victims.
A Plymouth man pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston on Thursday to cyberstalking seven Massachusetts women between 2008 and 2024.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, James Florence Jr., 37, pleaded guilty to seven counts of cyberstalking and one count of possession of child pornography.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns scheduled Florence’s sentencing hearing for July 23.
Police arrested Florence in September 2024 on criminal charges. He has remained in custody since.
According to authorities, two of Florence’s victims were minors when he began cyberstalking them. He preyed on women in his life, “exploiting their relationships and going to great lengths to betray and terrorize them,” officials said.
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Beginning in 2008, authorities said, Florence engaged in elaborate, sustained online harassment campaigns, including hacking into victims’ personal accounts. He also created more than 60 accounts across nearly 30 platforms that he used to disseminate thousands of doctored or AI-generated sexually explicit images.
According to court filings, Florence targeted women he knew personally. He would steal photos from their accounts, digitally alter them to appear nude or engaged in sexual acts, and then post them publicly alongside their names, home addresses, and other identifying details.
Florence often prompted strangers to contact the victims directly, with some unknown senders demanding that the victims produce real sexually explicit content under threat of distributing the doctored images to friends, family, and professional contacts.
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Many of Florence’s victims continue to receive harassing and threatening messages from unknown people who encounter the content he created and distributed online, authorities said.
Additionally, police uncovered the following items during a search of Florence’s residence in Plymouth in September 2024:
- Dozens of pairs of stolen women’s underwear and socks from his victims
- A custom phone case featuring the image of one of the victims
- At least 11 digital wallpapers of his victims on his phone
- At least one photo of a victim taken when she was a minor
- 62 images and four videos of child sexual abuse material, depicting minor female victims between the ages of approximately eight and 15 years old
According to court filings, Florence was previously employed at software companies and at an emerging technology organization, where he performed work for the U.S. government.
With this knowledge, he used a variety of tactics to evade law enforcement through VPN services, anonymous overseas “revenge porn” websites, and encrypted foreign email providers, officials said.
The charge of stalking by electronic means can lead to a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. The charge of child pornography can lead to a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to a lifetime of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.
If you or someone you know is a victim of cyberstalking, visit the Office for Victims of Crime.
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