Daniel Brooks is a twenty-something adult survivor of childhood sexual abuse who was forced into a series of child pornography videos during the 1990's, only to end up making some himself as an adult.
History[]
A younger Daniel
Sometime during the 1990's Daniel Brooks was among dozens of children kidnapped by a known pedophile named Orville Underwood, and used in some of his child pornographic videos. Not much is known about his life prior to this period. One of the other children Underwood kidnapped was a girl named Larissa Welsh, who had spent much of her youth in and out of foster care, and who's absence was unnoticed by her foster parents at the time. In order to intimidate her into cooperating with him, Underwood threatened to send an organization known as The Coventry after her and her family. Chances are, Daniel also faced the same threats. For the videos, Underwood forced her to change her name to "Brandy," and probably forced Daniel into some of the same videos. Welsh and Brooks developed a fondness for one another, and though she knew very little about him she admired his smile, which was one of the few pleasant memories during their ordeal. The Brandy videos became popular among pedophiles.
The two victims often used discarded peanut butter jars and converted them into "wishing jars" which they buried in a garden, one of which included a leather wrist band that Daniel gave to Larissa. Brooks helped Larissa escape from Underwood's porno ring and seemed to drop out of sight. Larissa spent much of her youth remembering Daniel as her savior.
Days after her escape, Larissa spotted Underwood, who was arrested after they heard her scream. Unfortunately, the limited evidence against him ended up setting him free. Despite her inability to help convict Underwood of molesting children, Welsh tried in vain to put this aspect of her life behind her. Brooks however was unable to escape from the mentality forced upon him by The Coventry. He gained a criminal record for shoplifting and prostitution and blamed Larissa for never returning for him. He bought an abandoned factory at 701 East 13th Street in Lower Manhattan, which he himself used to make his own collection of child porn videos.
After Larissa was attacked by a former fan of her old videos named Eldon Balogh, both she and her perpetrator were questioned by the Special Victims Unit. Larissa had mentioned Daniel, and through some investigation found his warehouse hoping he would testify against Underwood. When they arrived at his warehouse, they found he had become a child pornographer himself, and to make matters worse, he had been brainwashed to the point of denying his former victimization by Underwood, and thus was rendered an unreliable witness. Daniel threatened to drop one of his children off a balcony in an attempt to get away, but was talked down by Detective Stabler. In questioning, Daniel showed a mentality reflecting his new role as the victimizer instead of the victim, with Stabler and Detective Benson noting that he seemed to be dead inside.
During the trial, Underwood acted in his own defense, and used the argument that the books that Balogh used as a guide to finding Larissa were mere works of fiction that had nothing to do with her rape. Unfortunately, with the death of Balogh and Daniel's refusal to testify, the prosecution was unable to make a case against him with the evidence obtained. However, Larissa was convinced she could convince Daniel to testify. As she arrived at Rikers, she expressed her disappointment that he became everything Underwood was. However, Daniel did have guilt from his actions but was convinced that the both of them could never return to a life without pedophilia and refused to help bring Underwood down. However, Daniel secretly revealed to Larissa that Underwood was still victimizing children, causing Larissa to kill Underwood in the process of rescuing his newest victim. Daniel was then imprisoned for kidnapping and child pornography. (SVU: "Possessed")