WEST POINT, N.Y. (1010 WINS) — A former staff sergeant at West Point was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for child pornography possession, the Department of Justice announced Thursday.
Patrick Edwin Gorychka, 40, was arrested in 2019 following a sting operation in which he attempted to pay an undercover FBI agent to have sex with children.
The disgraced soldier first interacted with an undercover agent on Oct. 31, 2019 in a Kik chatroom for pedophiles.
The FBI agent identified himself as a 48-year-old uncle who had sex with his niece. When Gorychka asked him for photos, the undercover told him about a “pedo mom” in New York who “keeps kids of illegals while they work” and “makes some $ on the side.”
Gorychka replied “Omg that’s hot” and asked to be connected with the imaginary trafficker.
A second undercover made contact with him posing as the “pedo mom,” and Gorychka asked if she could “potentially facilitate certain things” with preteens.
On Nov. 2, Gorychka sent links to a cloud storage platform containing child pornography to one of the agents.
“The availability of child pornography spread through chatrooms and discreet websites is every modern parent’s worst nightmare,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. “This Office will continue to prioritize protecting our most vulnerable citizens, children, from this kind of exploitation.”
Gorychka pleaded guilty to the child pornography charges against him on May 23.
In addition to the 42-month sentence, he will also serve five years supervised release.
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