Former soccer coach-referee pleads guilty to child pornography charges

A Huntington Beach man who served as a referee and coach for the American Youth Soccer Organization pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges, admitting that he hid a camera in a location where he knew an underage girl in his care would undress and that he persuaded a second child overseas to send him nude photos of herself.

Mark Phillip Oster, 64, entered his plea in federal court in Los Angeles to a single count of production of child pornography. Sentencing was set for Nov. 25, after which he faces between 15 and 30 years in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

In his plea agreement, Oster admitted to posting images of child pornography on a dark web website specifically designed for sharing images and videos of child pornography and discussing child sexual abuse.

On the site, he shared his knowledge of child pornography production in the Philippines and explained how child sexual exploitation occurs in Southeast Asia, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

A court document shows Oster also shared child pornography on Facebook and Skype and saved child pornography to his Google Photos.

He also produced child pornography involving a minor victim who was under his “care, custody and control” at the time of the crimes, his plea agreement said.

Federal prosecutors say hard drives seized from his home in March and August 2021 contained numerous images of child pornography he had made with the girl, who was under the age of 12 at the time.

Additionally, throughout 2020 and continuing into July 2021, Oster produced child pornography by “enticing, persuading and directing” a second child, who was approximately 13 years old and lived outside the United States, to take photographs of herself and send them to the defendant, federal prosecutors said.

Oster admitted that he also “persuaded and enticed” the mother of the second victim to take photographs of her daughter’s body. In exchange for the photographs, Oster sent money and gifts to the child and her mother. The girl was “vulnerable due to her poverty,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Oster was affiliated with AYSO from 2015 to 2021. He was named in a four-count federal indictment filed in August 2021, charging him with two counts of producing child pornography, one count of distributing child pornography, and one count of possessing child pornography.