ROYAL OAK, Mich. – A Royal Oak man is accused of making a girl perform sexual acts for him during video calls and exchanging inappropriate messages with multiple girls on social media.
On Jan. 4, officials from the Royal Oak Police Department learned that Steven Harvey Bishop had been exchanging Instagram messages with people who purported to be minors, according to authorities.
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Inappropriate messages
A witness showed police screenshots she received from one of the minor Instagram users, court records show. Here is part of the conversation, according to a criminal complaint:
- Bishop: And ur 14 from France huh?
- Other user: Yeahh
- Bishop: The filter ages u up quite a bit then bc u don’t look 14
- Other user: ohh u really think so?
- Bishop: Yeah I do
- Other user: oh well thanks ppl often tell me i look older than my age
- Bishop: How u gonna be lewd for me if ur phone camera broke anyway
Officials said a search warrant was executed Jan. 7 for the Discord account linked to Bishop. Here are some of the messages, authorities said:
WARNING: Some of the messages below are disturbing and explicit in nature.
- Other user: how old are you anyway??
- Bishop: 18, y
- Other user: 16
- Bishop: Oh well uhhh,….I mean I’m not a cop lol
- Other user: hehe its okay i don’t mind~
- Bishop: Well d--- I’m lucky then
- Other user: love u daddy<3
- Bishop: lly2, can I call u?
- Other user: yes daddy<3
- Bishop: Get naked so I can see u when u get on cam
Later in the conversation, Bishop asked the girl to touch herself inappropriately, officials said. He later told her to send him a picture of herself in a sexual pose by the time he woke up in the morning, according to the complaint.
“I want something nice to wake up to,” Bishop said, according to court records. “Make sure I can see your face in it.”
Investigation
The girl was interviewed by police on May 17 and confirmed she used the account referenced above to converse with the account linked to Bishop, authorities said.
She said she would join FaceTime calls with Bishop, and he would tell her to perform sexual acts, slap herself across the face, put a gag in her mouth, among other requests, the criminal complaint says.
Police said Bishop wouldn’t have his camera on during the FaceTime calls. He asked the girl if he could take screenshots, but she said no, according to authorities. She believes he took screenshots anyway, officials said.
Authorities said they received the Discord account and found photos of a man who resembled Bishop.
The witness who showed police the Instagram screenshots said that Bishop recently lived on North Campbell Road in Royal Oak, court records show. When the witness told Bishop about the screenshots, he moved out of the home, according to authorities.
Officials traced a phone number linked to Bishop to a location on Marengo Drive in Troy, they said. A search warrant was executed there Wednesday (July 6), and Bishop agreed to be interviewed, according to police.
He confirmed his Instagram and Discord accounts were the ones investigated by police, they said.
“Bishop advised he has had sexual conversations on the internet with three females under the age of 16,” the criminal complaint says.
He admitted to requesting nude photos from two of the girls and said they both sent multiple pictures to him, according to authorities.
Bishop said he had FaceTime calls with one of the girls and asked her to perform sexual acts, court records show.
The criminal complaint concludes that there is probable cause to charge Bishop with online enticement of a minor to engage in illicit sexual activity and production of and attempting to produce child pornography.
