A Long Island woman working as a child therapist collected and shared child porn videos of babies being violently raped, and pretended to be the one doing the raping in disturbing online chats, the feds allege.
Renee Hoberman, 36, who also goes by the name Rina, was busted Wednesday after she posted several videos on the messaging app Kik between June and October of this year, the feds allege.
The videos, which showed violent sexual acts against several children between six months and 2 years old, spurred several tips to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to a criminal complaint.
They came from accounts tied to Hoberman, with names like “badgurl854,” “Daddywhospanks Naked,” and “troublegirl2434,” the feds allege.
Hoberman also pretended to be a man in a chat on Oct. 16 and claimed that she raped and punished children while others watched, inviting the person she was messaging to visit “his” family in New York to spank the children, according to the complaint.
“As alleged, Hoberman distributed heinous and disturbing child pornography, including videos showing infants being restrained and raped,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace. “Additionally, while posing as a man, Hoberman, who is a therapist serving children, claimed to have produced child pornography and offered others the opportunity to sexually abuse children.”
When Homeland Security Investigations agents raided her Plainview, L.I. home Wednesday, they found more child porn, and evidence she sent child porn via the Telegram app, according to the complaint.
She admitted to using several messaging apps to upload child porn, telling the agents she is sexually aroused by violent depictions of children from infancy to age three, according to the complaint.
Hoberman has been a licensed clinical social worked since December 2020, state records show.
“Hi! I’m Renee … I have experience working with kids under 12 and adolescents and believe a big part of therapy is building rapport,” reads her now-deleted profile on the website for mental health care provider LifeStance Health, which describes her as a therapist in Melville, L.I. serving children from birth to 17 years old.
“I have 6 years of experience working in an inpatient psychiatric setting and have interned in elementary schools and mental health clinics,” the profile reads.
According to the complaint, her Facebook page shows she’s been employed as an assistant counselor at a hospital in Amityville, L.I. that provides mental health services to children, adolescents, and adults, and worked at a daycare in Lindenhurst, L.I. from 2013 to 2016.
Hoberman was arraigned Wednesday in Long Island Federal Court and ordered held without bail. She could face a mandatory minimum five-year sentence if convicted at trial. Her lawyer did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
