HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — A Long Island man was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday for distributing child pornography and sexually abusing a girl in his care, federal prosecutors said.
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Manuel Geovanny Torres Rivas, 27, must also register as a sex offender upon his release from prison and not have unsupervised contact with children. He pleaded guilty to the charges in January.
“Today’s sentence removes a dangerous predator and is only possible due to the bravery of two young girls, who came forward to the authorities about the defendant's disturbing behavior online, which then helped protect the community and end the abuse of another girl," said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace.
According to court documents, he targeted multiple girls on Snapchat, where he would engage them with sexually explicit conversations and send them unsolicited videos and images of child pornography.
In one example, Torres Rivas used the Snapchat account "Geovanny_z6134" to contact a 13-year-old Connecticut girl in September 2019. A stranger to the girl, he allegedly described his own sexual abuse of a 9-year-old and sent the girl an unsolicited video of child pornography.
Prosecutors said that in June 2020, Torres Rivas uploaded more than two dozen videos and images of child pornography to Snapchat, including some of which showed children believed to be under the age of 5.
He also used the Snapchat account "Geovr19" to contact an 11-year-old girl in Nevada and told her that he allegedly molested a 9-year-old girl and sent the child sexually explicit photos of himself.
His conduct came to light after a 13-year-old girl from Connecticut reported his contact to her school officials, who called police. The 11-year-old girl also reported Torres Rivas' conduct to local police.
Snapchat reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that around 28 videos and images containing child pornography had been uploaded to the platform using his Snapchat account.
Prosecutors said that investigators traced these Snapchat accounts to his Hempstead home.
Torres Rivas was found to have recorded many sexual encounters with a 9-year-old child who had been entrusted to his care when his home was searched.
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