American client of Manila cybersex den hauled to jail

MANILA, Philippines - A 54-year-old American from Washington was sentenced by a US court to 12 years in federal prison on Thursday for coercing Filipino minors into doing sexual acts over the Internet.

Before being arrested in 2011 by Homeland Security agents in his Pennsylvania home, Jeffrey Herschell would order the girls on the other part of the Pacific to act out his sexual fantasies while a trafficker would help direct them as cameraman.

A CNN documentary showing local officials conducting a raid of a Manila-based sex trafficking den led American investigators to Herschell.

The girls featured in the film described how Americans like Herschell, whom they call "maniacs," would pay $27 per hour in the sex chat room.

"You need to stop preying on girls like us," one of them said in Filipino, addressing patrons of prostitution and pornography dens.

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Visayan Forum Foundation director Cecilia Flores-Oebanda, who led the raid, also said that the girls would often suffer from trauma even years after they were rescued by authorities.

The documentary aired early this May over CNN International Channel follows the life of anti-trafficking advocate Oebanda, who runs a safe house for the victims.

Data from Transparency International has reported that 100,000 of the estimated 800,000 involved in the Philippines' sex industry are children and minors.