Pittsford Man Sentenced to Five Years in Prison in Child Pornography Case
U.S. Attorney’s Office February 16, 2011 |
ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Seles Varin, 56, of Pittsford, New York, was sentenced to 60 months in prison, a fine of $500, and eight years’ supervised release by U.S. District Court Judge David G. Larimer after pleading guilty to receipt of child pornography.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany H. Lee, who is handling the case, stated that Varin downloaded child pornography using file-sharing software between November 2008 and June 2009. The images included sexually explicit depictions of minors under 12 years old.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (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.projectsafechildhood.gov.
The sentence was the culmination of an investigation on the part of the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, under the direction of Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn, and special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James H. Robertson.