A 49-year-old Wilmington, Del. man was sentenced in federal court Thursday to 30 years in prison for producing and transporting child pornography.
The judge sentenced Leonard Wasylyk to the 30-year sentence requested by prosecutors, rejecting a plea from Wasylyk's public defender for a 20-year sentence.
Authorities say Wasylyk was identified during an investigation of a private peer-to-peer computer network that was used to trade child pornography. He was arrested in December 2010, when authorities seized a computer from his home containing more than 60,000 images and more than 700 movies of child pornography mostly featuring prepubescent and teenage boys engaged in sex acts with adult men, according to officials.
Per a U.S. Attorney press release:
Data recovered from Wasylyk’s computer revealed that he established an elaborate private online network of over 150 child sex offenders with whom he traded images of child pornography and bragged about his multiple molestations of victims.
Before sentencing Wasylyk, the judge heard from a teenager who is seen on homemade videos being sexually abused by Wasylyk and who spoke tearfully of the toll the abuse has taken on him and his family.
“The sexual abuse of a child is among the most heinous of crimes in our society,” said U.S. Attorney Charles Oberly, III. “Mr. Wasylyk didn’t stop with trading images of child pornography made by others. He physically abused multiple boys entrusted to his care.
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“Mr. Wasylyk also photographed the sexual abuse of two children and then distributed the images of his abuse of one of them to like-minded child sex offenders who shared his criminal perversion. By his actions, Mr. Wasylyk ensured that his physical and psychological abuse of these children will be perpetuated in the digital world. Today’s sentencing ensures that Mr. Wasylyk will be incarcerated for at least 30 years and that other children will be spared future sexual abuse.”
Upon his release, Wasylyk will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, U.S. attorneys said.
