Columbia Student Who Fought Sexual Violence Faces Child Sex Crime Charges

NEW YORK — A Columbia University student whose global campaign against rape and sexual abuse of children earned him berths to speak alongside U.N. and State Department officials was charged this week with a series of sex crimes against children.

In a complaint filed in federal court Tuesday against the student, Joel Davis, 22, prosecutors outlined a series of sordid allegations, including an admission by Davis that he had sex with a 13-year-old boy in his New York apartment.

The complaint also outlines text messages Davis sent undercover FBI agents seeking sexual images of children as young as 2.

“The conduct alleged against Joel Davis is as unfathomable as it is sickening,” Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement Tuesday.

He is charged with one count of enticement of a minor under the age of 18 to engage in sexual activity, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. He is also charged with one count of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, one count of possession of child pornography and one count of receipt and distribution of child pornography, prosecutors said this week.

An email to Davis and a phone call to his lawyer were not returned Thursday. Davis, who lives in New York, was being held in Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan without bond. He has a hearing scheduled for July 10.

A spokesman for the prosecutors declined to comment on anything beyond the complaint, including whether any evidence indicated that Davis had committed crimes through his role as an advocate.

Davis had aligned himself closely with movements to end sexual violence. He is widely credited as one of the founders of a nonprofit organization called Youth to End Sexual Violence in 2014, born out of a global summit on sexual violence that year. That meeting was organized in part by Angelina Jolie, an actress and U.N. special envoy.

A spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general said Thursday that Davis had attended several U.N. events over the years and that U.N. officials were “appalled” by the allegations.

“In so many conflicts across the globe, children’s bodies are quickly becoming sites of violence, where rape is used to terrorize and degrade entire communities,” Davis wrote in an essay on Huffington Post in 2014. “We are also using media and technology to share the global call to prevent, protect and prosecute, and working with governments and civil society organizations to report on how young people are affected by war zone rape.”

In a November 2017 column for the student newspaper, the Columbia Spectator, Davis described being the victim of rape and how the sexual abuse affected his relationships.

“But it’s hard to picture making a clean break from the parade of temporal disturbances and mental exacerbations that have plagued you since you were 10,” Davis wrote. “The more I tried to run from my past, the more force it exerted on me.”

In 2015, a TV news station in Florida, where Davis had lived as a child, reported that Davis had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his advocacy.

Officials with the Norwegian Nobel Institute and the nonprofit group did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. According to Nobel Peace Prize rules, the names of nominees are not revealed until 50 years after their nomination.

Since 2017, Davis helped coordinate the International Campaign to Stop Rape and Gender Violence in Conflict, an association of more than 5,000 organizations and activists, including the nonprofit groups Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights, according to a statement the group posted on Facebook.

“We are deeply shaken, shocked, and appalled by these revelations,” the statement reads. “We stand firmly by the children and families allegedly hurt by these acts.”

The group said Thursday that Davis had been removed from his role as coordinator.

In April, Davis, described as an activist seeking to end sexual violence against children, was listed as a speaker for a TED Talk at Columbia.

The complaint against Davis charges that in May and June, undercover FBI agents had been exchanging messages with Davis after posting an advertisement on a website frequented by people “with a sexual interest in children.”

Davis sent a series of child pornography pictures to one agent. To another agent, Davis expressed a sexual interest in the agent’s fictional 9-year-old and 2-year-old daughters. The complaint says that a search of Davis’ cellphone revealed more child pornography.

Davis also admitted to meeting a 13-year-old boy on the Grindr app and having sex with the boy at Davis’ apartment, according to court papers.

Davis was expected to graduate from Columbia next spring.

In a statement, a university spokesman said, “We share the view expressed by the U.S. attorney’s office that the allegations in this matter are unfathomable and deeply disturbing.”

The spokesman declined to comment on whether the university was pursuing any investigations or disciplinary measures against Davis.