Indiana Man Charged With Coercing 12-Year-Old Girl to Self-Harm, Possessing Child Sexual Abuse Images

NEWARK, N.J. — A 26-year-old Indiana man has been charged with cyberstalking a minor child in New Jersey over the internet and coercing her into harming herself, as well as possessing images of child sexual abuse, U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer announced Friday.

Billy Joe Holman, also known as William Holman, of West Lebanon, Indiana, was named in a two-count federal complaint charging him with cyberstalking and possession of child pornography. Holman made his initial appearance Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott J. Frankel in federal court in the Northern District of Indiana and was ordered detained.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Holman met his 12-year-old victim — identified in court documents as Victim 1 — in or around October 2025 on a social media platform. Knowing the victim’s age, Holman allegedly began systematically targeting her through a pattern of grooming and coercive control, using manipulation tactics that included weaponizing affection and issuing verbal threats and abuse to direct her actions.

Over the course of approximately one month, Holman allegedly coerced the girl into physically harming herself, including carving his initials into her skin and punching herself in the stomach on video, which she was then directed to send to him. He also allegedly demanded that she send him photographs of herself that constituted child sexual abuse material.

The cyberstalking charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, as does the possession of child pornography charge. Holman also faces a potential fine of up to $250,000.

U.S. Attorney Frazer credited the Newark and Indianapolis Joint Terrorism Task Forces of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Morris County Sheriff’s Office under Sheriff James M. Gannon, and the Dover Police Department under Chief Jonathan Delaney with conducting the investigation. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana also assisted in the case.

The case is being prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative launched in May 2006 to combat the sexual exploitation and abuse of children. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sammi Malek of the National Security Unit in Newark, with assistance from Trial Attorneys Justin Sher and James Donnelly of the DOJ’s Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division.

The charges and allegations contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and Holman is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

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