The final defendant in the long-running sex trafficking prosecution involving the GirlsDoPorn online empire was sentenced in San Diego federal court Friday to four years in prison.

Douglas Wiederhold, 42, who appeared as the male actor in 71 of the website’s pornographic videos, pleaded guilty in 2024 to a federal conspiracy charge for his involvement with the now-defunct site.

According to his plea agreement, Wiederhold falsely assured at least two women that their videos wouldn’t be posted online after knowing other women’s videos had already been uploaded to the internet.

Prosecutors say that for years, GirlsDoPorn’s owners and operators coerced and tricked hundreds of women into appearing in online pornographic videos under false pretenses by assuring them their videos would be distributed only to private customers on DVDs or other physical platforms, while always intending to post the videos online.

Wiederhold, whose plea agreement states he took part in the conspiracy from 2011 to 2012, was charged nearly four years after the bulk of the defendants in the case, including GirlsDoPorn’s owner, Michael James Pratt.

During Friday’s sentencing hearing, defense attorney Patrick Griffin argued his client had far less involvement in GirlsDoPorn’s criminal activities than any of the other defendants.

Griffin said Wiederhold “went along” with the false representations forwarded by Pratt and failed to contradict Pratt’s lies, but denied that Wiederhold actively took part in deceiving the women.

Weiderhold apologized in court and said that he was “ashamed” of his role in the crimes, while Griffin said his client “carries immense regret and shame” for taking part in it.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandra Foster said Wiederhold was the “nice guy, the friendly face, the one who gave (victims) assurances it would be OK,” while knowing that they were being lied to.

The prosecutor highlighted one text message exchange in which a woman notified Wiederhold that the video they appeared in was posted online.

Wiederhold denied knowing how the video got posted, and then when the woman sent him a link to the video, he ignored her and stopped responding, Foster said. After that conversation, Wiederhold continued working for GirlsDoPorn for nearly another year, according to the prosecutor.

Just as with other sentencings in the case, U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino heard statements from several women who spoke of the impact their videos’ dissemination had on them.

One said she experienced suicidal ideations for years after her video was posted and said she fears being recognized by strangers to this day.

Another woman said she has made constant efforts to have images and videos of herself removed from the internet “without success.” She said some people who have found her video have been able to discover where she lives and works and then intentionally exposed her past to others in her life.

Another victim took issue with Wiederhold distancing himself from Pratt and from involvement in GirlsDoPorn’s formation into a sex-trafficking enterprise.

Before the video she shot with Wiederhold, she said he already knew other women’s videos had been uploaded online.

“Your involvement wasn’t incidental or passive,” the woman said. “You helped build the machine.”

Sammartino, who has presided over the case since its inception and sentenced all of the defendants, commented on the unique nature of the crimes prior to imposing the four-year prison term.

“It’s clear to the court that what has happened in this case will have long-lasting harm. Some of that damage will be lifelong,” the judge said. “I have never had a case like this before, and I think that’s a good thing.”

Others previously sentenced include Pratt, who received a 27-year prison term last year. Pratt spent three years on the run before his arrest in Spain and was at one time on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list.