A 63-year-old American has been sentenced to 14 years for attempting to have sex with an eight-year-old Filipina.
Carl Sara, from Springfield, Virginia, watched live-streamed child abuse and engaged in sexually explicit chat with children.
During some of these chats in 2013, Sara tried to persuade a mother to let her eight-year-old daughter have sex with him during a planned visit to the Philippines.
As we previously reported, he paid her $200 dollars via Western Union as a down-payment and offered to pay another $300 after he had raped the girl.
The 168-month sentence he received this week was above the minimum sentence of 10 years, but below the maximum of life.
Should he outlive the term, his release will be “supervised”.
Sara pleaded guilty to one count each of attempted sex trafficking of children, attempted enticement of a minor to engage in sex, travelling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with minors and transportation and possession of child pornography.
The court was also told that during a previous trip to the Philippines he paid for sex with a 16-year-old girl. It was also found that he spent $33,000 to watch the online abuse of children.
Court documents did not reveal the location of the eight-year-old girl, or whether any action has been taken to prosecute her mother.
In recent months, several so-called ‘cyberporn dens’ have been raided across the Philippines, many in conjunction with assistance from the International Justice Mission (IJM), an international group that works to protect women and children living in poverty.
The case against Sara was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.
The project brings together federal, state and local resources to 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, click here.
Meanwhile, blackhillsfox.com has reported that 35-year-old Shane Douglas of South Dakota has been sentenced to 20 years for similar crimes.
Judge Jeffrey Viken handed down the lengthy sentence despite Douglas’ clear criminal history, and a letter he wrote to the court saying how this impacts women all over the world and expressing his “embarrassment, regret and remorse for the situation”.
After serving prison time, Douglas will have 15 years of supervised release.