Georgia grad student charged with blackmailing Boston-area woman over nude pics, videos, for more than a year

A master's student at the University of Georgia was arrested today on charges of cyberstalking and extortion through interstate threats for a two-year campaign in which he got a woman in eastern Massachusetts to keep performing lewd acts for him online in exchange for him not sending his image collection to her parents.

The victim initially contacted Gary Leach, 23, after reading his comment on another post under the #fitpic tag on Instagram, which is used by people who are willing to get naked online in exchange for money, according to an affidavit by an FBI agent on the case. In October, 2019, he agreed to her price of $200 and sent her the money via Cashapp for a ten-minute session in October, 2019, in which she agreed "to undress and perform various actions of a sexual nature," the affidavit states. Later, he asked for a second video session and some nude selfies, which he promised he would pay her for. Only after the session and he got the photos, he didn't pay up.

In approximately December 2019, Victim 1 received a direct message over Instagram from a username that she did not recognize. Based on its content, she believed it to be Leach, the same individual who had tricked her into sending sexually explicit communications. Leach sent to Victim 1 a video and asked her what her father would say were he to see the video. Victim 1 recognized the video as a recording of her from one of her October 2019 video calls with Leach.

In response, Victim 1 asked Leach what he wanted and whether he was seeking money from her. Leach demanded that Victim 1 video chat with him again immediately. He sent to Victim 1 a photograph of her parents' Instagram account information and indicated to Victim 1 that he would send the recording to her parents if she did not comply. Leach indicated that he would delete the recording at the completion of the video call.

This was followed by month after month of similar interactions, in which Leach, a candidate for a master's in public administration, alternated between pleading for one last session - after which he would promise to delete all his images of the woman - and conversations in which he admitted he did not deleted the images and demanded the woman not only perform lewd acts but debase herself verbally - or face having her parents get copies.

In response to her requests to leave her alone, he said he couldn't because he enjoyed making her do what he wanted too much.

During these calls, Victim 1 asked Leach to stop harassing her and to tell her why he kept pursuing her. On one of these occasions, Leach responded that he did not know why he did so, commenting, “I’m an enigma, baby.” On another occasion, Leach told Victim 1, in substance, "I'm not a bad guy; I just have a problem."

The affidavit includes copies of what is says are some of their interactions, including:

Victim 1: You said you were gonna show the video you had to 3 people if I didn't do this deal

Leach: Well I was thinking mom dad and sis

Victim 1: You're cruel

19 Leach: Compliments aren't gonna get you very far with me But I appreciate its

In January of this year, the victim finally had had enough and contacted the FBI, and provided agents with a copy she'd made of a "self-disappearing" selfie Leach had allegedly once sent her (according to the affidavit, she used a separate camera to take a photo of the selfie). She also provided agents with a link to Leach's University of Georgia student profile, which she'd found by doing a reverse-image search on Google Images.

Victim 1's identification of her stalker as Leach is corroborated by information that Leach had shared with her and her observations during her interactions with Leach, including Leach's age (Leach is 23 years old); his location (Leach lives and attends school in Athens, Georgia); his status as a student and/or government employee (Leach is in a Master of Public Administration program); and his physical appearance (Leach is a white male of above-average bodyweight).

The affidavit concludes:

The Leach Accounts also contain messages between Leach and at least 20 other Instagram users indicating that Leach contacted the Instagram users, pretending to know them, and initiated video calls for the purpose of exposing himself masturbating. When a number of these Instagram users did not answer video calls from Leach, Leach sent them unsolicited photographs and/or videos of himself masturbating.

According to the US Attorney's office, Leach was arrested today in Georgia. He will eventually be shipped to Boston to face arraignment in federal court here.

The US Attorney's office has set up a page for possible victims to report their own interactions with him.

Innocent, etc.

Complete affidavit (1.8M PDF).