Final defendant in GirlsDoPorn sex trafficking case sentenced to 4 years in prison

SAN DIEGO (CN) — A federal judge sentenced a man to prison Friday for his role in luring young women into participating in an illegal pornography and sex trafficking ring.

U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino sentenced Douglas Wiederhold to four years in prison. He is the final defendant to be sentenced to prison in the GirlsDoPorn scandal that victimized hundreds of young women, some of whom were still in high school at the time.

Although Sammartino began the hearing by telling the courtroom she believed some prison time was necessary for the sentencing, defense attorney Patrick Griffin, of Griffin Law Office, asked the court for a year of home confinement for Wiederhold. Many of the victims asked for the judge to sentence him to five years.

Wiederhold participated in the GirlsDoPorn sex trafficking ring as a male actor in 70 videos. He was employed in 2011 and 2012 by Michael Pratt, a New Zealander and owner of the GirlsDoPorn website who was responsible for coercing the young women into participating in pornographic films after falsely advertising a modeling job online, according to federal prosecutors.

The women were often told that the videos would be sold overseas to a private collector and not posted online, but this was not true.

“I can’t express the amount of remorse and shame I have for the past,” said Wiederhold, now 42 years old and living with his girlfriend in an RV on his family’s property in Michigan. “I am extremely remorseful.”

Wiederhold pleaded guilty in 2024 to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion.

Several victims of the sex trafficking ring addressed the court to describe the lasting trauma of Wiederhold and the other conspirators.

One victim impact statement from an anonymous woman, read by Mariah Rief, another victim of the sex trafficking ring, said that the experience left her with diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder. While he may feel reformed, his victims still suffer, she said.

“If Mr. Wiederhold thinks he is anyway less culpable than Mr. Pratt, that is deeply offensive to me,” she wrote. “Douglas Wiederhold had played a pivotal role in GirlsDoPorn. I believe justice requires him to be sentenced to the maximum of five years in prison.”

Other statements, read by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandra Foster, described the manipulation, confusion, shame and harassment in the years that followed their coercion into GirlsDoPorn.

“He didn’t just humiliate me, he branded me,” the victim wrote of Wiederhold. “The shame forced upon me created a barrier between me and my family. Even a decade later, my spirit is still healing. I want justice. Douglas is a predator who valued me as a commodity, and not a human being.”

Many of the victims described doxxing, harassment and death threats at college, work and at home in the years following the sex trafficking ring.

“I have lived in survival mode since 2011 while you have lived your life free from consequences,” one woman told Wiederhold via teleconference. “It’s time for accountability."

Griffin described his client as a man in his 20s reeling from the loss of his brother when he came into contact with Pratt, who enticed him to move to California from Ohio and then gradually desensitized him to participating in the illegal pornography ring. It was like a frog being slowly boiled in water, he said. Pratt was sentenced to 27 years in prison last summer.

“Mr Wiederhold carries immense regret and shame for this case,” Griffin said. “What we have to do is travel back. The man before you is a much different person than he was 15 to 16 years ago.”

He asked the court to consider the amount of time that has passed since Wiederhold’s participation with GirlsDoPorn. Wiederhold spent a couple of years working in the adult film industry after leaving GirlsDoPorn, but has since left the industry behind, Griffin said.

“This is a rare situation where you have a defendant who has proved he changed,” he said. “All he’s done since he left Mr. Pratt’s clutches is live a law-abiding life. We’re here in 2026 in court with someone who is not remotely the same person.”

Griffin also argued that Wiederhold deserved a lighter sentence than some of the other defendants, like GirlsDoPorn employees Valerie Moser and Theodore Gyi, who knew their participation was illegal when they began their employment and participated for longer. Moser was sentenced to two years in prison and Gyi was sentenced to four.

“Nothing I’m saying is trying to minimize what the women went through,” Griffin said. “The harm they suffered is unimaginable. Mr. Wiederhold understands that.”

The government disagreed with Griffin’s characterization.

“Respectfully, this is not a different case,” Foster said. “These are the same videos, the same lies and it creates the same harm for these women.”

Foster argued that Wiederhold knew what he was doing was wrong and when he was confronted by the victims, he cut off communication.

“He was the nice guy,” she said. “He made the victims feel comfortable knowing full well that they would be fed a lie.”

Foster also argued that one year in home confinement was inappropriate for Wiederhold. A defendant should not get a lighter sentence by waiting for enough time to pass, she said.

“That’s the wrong message,” she said.

Sammartino agreed with the government.

“What I can tell from the plea agreement is that Mr. Pratt told you what to tell the girls if they asked," the George W. Bush appointee told Wiederhold. “I know that you falsely assured two girls about the videos not being posted publicly. You and Mr. Pratt together provided these assurances. … I wish we could say there was 10 to 15 years where we could have said the slate is wiped clean, but this will have lifelong impacts.”

Wiederhold was ordered to report to the Bureau of Prisons in Michigan in two months.