The young head of an international campaign group against sexual violence was arrested Tuesday on child sex abuse and pornography charges after being caught by an undercover FBI agent.
22-year-old Joel Davis reportedly tried to organize a sexual meet-up between himself and young children.
Davis, who is the chairman of the International Campaign to Stop Rape and Gender Violence in Conflict, was actually known for his efforts to putting an end to sexual violence.
Secret text conversations with an undercover agent, however, revealed that he was sexually interested in children, especially infants and toddlers.
His messages over the past few weeks gave details about the previously much-praised university student's secret life as a pedophile.
Davis reportedly sent the undercover agent explicit photographs featuring naked children, some even in sex acts with adults, giving details about previous encounters with minors and future intentions.
The 22-year-old New York resident, who is currently a student at Columbia University, went so far as to trying to persuade the undercover agent to send him nude pictures of the officer's children.
After his arrest on Tuesday, Davis admitted to having abused a 13-year-old boy in the past and keeping child porn images on his mobile phone.
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. said that the suspect "displayed the highest degree of hypocrisy by his alleged attempts to sexually exploit multiple minors," given the fact that he has been leading an anti-sexual violence campaign.
"As if this wasn't repulsive enough, Davis allegedly possessed and distributed utterly explicit images of innocent infants and toddlers being sexually abused by adults," Sweeney added.
The Manhattan federal court charged Davis with "enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, possession of child pornography and receipt and distribution of child pornography."
The Ivy League student, who claimed to have previously attended Oxford University and The Julliard School on his LinkedIn profile, was also a youth ambassador for the United Nations, a TED speaker and even worked closely with Angeline Jolie on charity projects, the Washington Post reported.
Mail Online cited U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman as calling Davis' offenses "unfathomable and sickening."
"Davis started an organization devoted to stopping sexual violence, while allegedly engaged in the duplicitous behavior of sharing explicit images of infants engaged in sexual activity," he said.
