Sex Cult Newspaper Reporter Gets 15 Years For Child Porn

A Joliet newspaper reporter who created a sex cult to brainwash young girls was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison Tuesday.

John Gabriel, 79, will undoubtedly die behind bars. He was found guilty in March of enticing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the production of child pornography.

Gabriel was jailed two years ago on child pornography and obstructing justice charges. Gabriel’s victim was a 17-year-old girl, according to a transcript of a federal court hearing.

During a court hearing earlier this year, prosecutors revealed that Gabriel created an elaborate “fantasy world based in religion” in order to dupe an underage girl into posing for sex pictures he posted on a website in hopes of enticing “young boys to have sex with” her. This fantasy world was populated by numerous angels and priestesses who would email Gabriel’s victims and encourage them to submit to his sexual advances, as well as to have sex with underage boys, according to a court filing.

The emails were actually written by Gabriel himself, according to prosecutors.

Gabriel preyed on other girls and young women in addition to the 17-year-old, Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas said in a court transcript.

“Clearly the victim’s sister and the aunt are all wrapped up in this,” Jonas said. And Gabriel’s much younger live-in lover, 35-year-old Margarita Hernandez, may have been as well.

More than three years ago, Hernandez caught a sex case of her own in Will County for her alleged tryst with a teenage boy. This case has yet to be resolved.

In a court filing for Hernandez’s case, a Will County prosecutor said police searching Gabriel and Hernandez’s home found “video of (her) having sex with two different adolescents who appear to be possibly under the age of 18.”

Hernandez also may have been beguiled by Gabriel. According to a court filing, federal agents found a 2002 letter sent to “Princess Margarita” from a “priestess” named “Di.” The letter was actually penned by Gabriel, according to the feds.

Jonas accused Gabriel of “brainwashing” the youths and women he allegedly bamboozled with his elaborate fantasy sex world.

“This is — this is a cult, what it really comes down,” Jonas said.