A Virginia man was sentenced this week to 25 years in prison for production of child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, that he then distributed to offenders over Telegram, a messaging application.
According to court documents, Vincent Sarikey, 35, formerly of Herndon, enticed a 15-year-old girl to produce CSAM.
Sarikey’s devices revealed more than 20,000 images and 500 videos of CSAM, including 486 with identified victims.
According to court documents, between October 2015 and July 2017, Sarikey conversed freely with a friend about his sexual interest in children. Sarikey talked about his attempts to meet, groom and abuse children, including a child to whom he had access and blamed his victims for his own criminal conduct.
In April 2018, he also attempted to entice a self-identified 12-year-old girl in Argentina to produce CSAM. The minor told Sarikey she was 12 and that he would “go to jail” and refused to make the sexually explicit video he requested. Sarikey then distributed two videos of sexually explicit conduct to the minor to try to entice her into producing a sexually explicit video for him.
Sarikey pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of children and faces additional charges for sexual exploitation of a child in the Southern District of Indiana based on his alleged sexual abuse and CSAM dating back as far as 15 years.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.
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Crystal Graham
