Newport News, Va. – A 38-year-old Fort Eustis soldier has been accused of producing and distributing child pornography.
An indictment filed on December 9 says the man was believed to produce child porn in May and August. The porn was allegedly distributed in July.
The indictment says the man used the internet to talk to one 10-year-old and two 14-year-olds from May through August 2015.
The man persuaded the children to engage in filming various forms of sexually explicit conduct, including bestiality and showing their genitals and body parts. The suspect also allegedly sent pictures of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct to at least one of the minors.
Documents say the suspect made attempts to visit two of the children.
The parents of one of the 14-year-old girls notified authorities after the girl was told to come outside of her house to meet another “girl” that she was talking to online. When police searched outside, they found a pair of girl’s underwear in the bushes. The man admitted to driving to the girl’s house and tossing the underwear, which belonged to another girl, into the bushes outside of her house.
Investigators linked an IP address to the man and government agents searched his house on November 5.
He was brought in for a polygraph interview, which indicated that the solider impersonated young girls on social media to meet minors online. He chatted with girls about sexual acts that they could do to themselves.
One of the chats included talking a minor through performing sexual acts with an animal.
Polygraph tests showed that he chatted with over 100 girls online and was excited by the ability to exercise control over them.
The man claimed he was trying to “scare [the girls] straight” and said if the girls sent sexual videos to him, they would not engage in sexual conduct anywhere else.
Documents say the soldier resided with his wife in base housing on Fort Eustis for two years prior to his arrest.
He also admitted to using cocaine and marijuana back in 2007 before he re-joined the Army in 2008.
The soldier is committed to the custody of the Attorney General for confinement in a corrections facility separate from persons awaiting or serving sentences or being held in custody pending appeal.
He could face a mandatory minimum sentence of fifteen years for each count of producing child pornography and a minimum mandatory sentence of five years for distributing child pornography.
