Man Sentenced to 81 Months in Prison for Traveling from France to the United States to Have Sex with an Underaged Child

WASHINGTON—Jean Frederic Godoc, 30, of Paris, France, was sentenced today to an 81-month prison term after earlier pleading guilty to traveling to the United States to have sex with an underaged child and one count of transportation of child pornography.

The sentencing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia was announced by U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen, Jr.; Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; Cathy L. Lanier, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department; and Earl L. Cook, Chief of the Alexandria, Virginia Police Department.

Godoc, who pled guilty in May 2012, was sentenced by the Honorable Beryl A. Howell. Upon completion of his prison term, he will be placed on 10 years of supervised release. Godoc also must register as a sex offender for 25 years.

According to a factual proffer of evidence presented during the plea proceeding, between September 1, 2011 and December 22, 2011, a detective from the Alexandria, Virginia Police Department who was operating undercover as part of a Virginia statewide law enforcement initiative, entered a website that is frequented by those who have a sexual interest in children. Godoc and the undercover officer communicated online over the three-month period, and the defendant indicated an interest in traveling to the United States and having a sexual relationship with an underage girl. In arranging the visit, Godoc offered to bring presents for the girl and her younger sister. On December 22, 2011, Godoc boarded a plane in Paris and traveled to the United States. Once he arrived, bearing his computer and the promised gifts, he was arrested.

A search of Godoc’s computer revealed that the defendant had transported several hundred images of child pornography to the United States.

This case was the result of a collaboration by the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, the Northern Virginia-District of Columbia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Alexandria City Police Department, the Virginia Department of State Police, and the MPD, with assistance from other law enforcement agencies.

The prosecution was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative. Project Safe Childhood is 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 U.S. 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 those who exploit children, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen, Assistant Director in Charge Parlave, Chief Lanier, and Chief Cook praised the work of Alexandria Police Department Detective Betty Sixsmith. They also commended the work of the Virginia Attorney General’s Office and the Northern Virginia-District of Columbia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, as well as the MPD detectives and special agents of the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force. Finally, they commended the efforts of those who handled the case at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Criminal Investigator John Marsh, Legal Assistant Charmonique Price, and the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section. Finally, they praised the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Julieanne Himelstein, who prosecuted the case.