Posted on: October 04, 2019 11:00 AM

Share : Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp

Woodhaven man sentenced to up to 63 years in prison for possessing and promoting images of child sexual abuse on the internet

Acting Queens District Attorney John M. Ryan today announced that a 41-year-old Queens man has been sentenced to up to 63 years in prison for promoting a sexual performance of child by sharing scores of videos of children engaged in sexually explicit acts via an online file sharing network. The graphic content was retrieved from a laptop recovered from the defendant?s residence.

Acting District Attorney Ryan said, ?This defendant partook in the vile act of sharing videos of children on the internet. These horrifying crimes should serve as reminder to all that the internet must be policed in order to prevent further instances of children being violated and degraded in the worst imaginable ways. The Court?s sentence is appropriate and hopefully serves as a deterrent to others who would engage in this despicable crime.?

The District Attorney?s Office identified the defendant as Diego Guerra, 41, of 87 Avenue in the Woodhaven section of Queens. Defendant Guerra was convicted in June before Queens Supreme Court

Justice Michael B. Aloise of 19 counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child and 30 counts of possessing a sexual performance by a child. Justice Aloise today sentenced the defendant to an indeterminate term of 21 to 63 years in prison and must register under the Sex Offender Register Act.

Acting District Attorney Ryan said that, according to the charges, while utilizing an internet software tool on January 5, 2017, law enforcement officials identified the defendant?s IP address as sharing a number of videos depicting child sexual abuse on a peer-to-peer file sharing network. Detectives determined that Guerra shared multiple videos of children between the ages of 6 and 12 being sexually abused by adult males. Some of the videos depicted children as young as 6 being vaginally penetrated by men, while others featured boys between 10 and 12 engaging in sexual acts.

On January 19, 2017, authorities were able to obtain additional video which the defendant was sharing on the peer-to-peer network. The video - which was 24 minutes in length - showed a teenage boy performing a sexual act on a girl whom authorities believed was between the ages of 6 and 8. The video then depicts a male adult giving instructions to the boy as he continued to penetrate the female child. Shortly after obtaining this file, authorities subpoenaed records pertaining to the IP address associated with the account. It was subsequently determined that the defendant was the individual sharing the videos.

Furthermore, said Acting DA Ryan, detectives executed a court-authorized search warrant at the defendant?s home on July 27, 2017. Once inside the residence, authorities recovered a laptop from the defendant?s bedroom. The defendant, who was present when the warrant was executed, was arrested a few days later and admitted the laptop was his, but claimed he only found it recently. A forensic exam performed on the laptop found 60 additional images of children between the ages of 2 and 12 with their genitals exposed and performing lewd sexual acts. In addition, there were pictures and videos of the defendant that had been put on the laptop in January of 2017, the same time the videos were being shared on the peer-to peer network. (From Queens DA office)