VIRGINIA
A Springfield, Virginia, man was sentenced Friday to 12 years and six months in prison for the attempted coercion and enticement of a minor and distribution of child pornography, according to offidials.
Monis Irfan, 21, a former substitute teacher and third-grade instructional assistant at two Fairfax County elementary schools, was sentenced in federal court, officials stated.
U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga also sentenced Irfan, who plead guilty on July 19, 2019, to 20 years supervision after he completes his prison sentence.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
According to admissions that he made in connection with his guilty plea, in January 2019, Irfan began communicating online with an undercover Fairfax County police detective posing as the father of a seven-year-old child.
Irfan repeatedly told the detective that he was sexually interested in and active with children, and discussed his desire to perform graphic sexual acts on the detective’s fictitious child.
After several days of sending sexually explicit messages and images, Irfan drove to a predetermined location to meet the undercover detective and engage in sexual acts with the child. Irfan was arrested at that time.
Additional investigation revealed that Irfan received and distributed child pornography videos depicting the sexual abuse of an infant over encrypted messaging apps on his mobile phone and also used his phone to record a video of himself engaging in sexually inappropriate behavior with a five-year-old child.
DOJ NOTED:
The FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force and the Fairfax County Police Department investigated the case.
Trial Attorney William G. Clayman of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Maya D. Song of the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.
Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.