Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A Jacksonville man was sentenced August 4, 2021 to 420 months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release for enticing and sexually abusing a minor, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of North Caorlina. Emilio R. Moran, 39, pleaded guilty to the charges on August 17, 2020.

According to court documents and other information presented in court, Moran enticed a minor into a prolonged sexual relationship while living in Okinawa, Japan. Moran, a former U.S. Marine, was working in Okinawa at the time of the crime.

“Moran used text messages and gifts to entice the minor into the illicit relationship,” stated the release. “The sexual relationship ended when the parents of the minor discovered it and reported the crime to investigators with the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations.”

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and G. Norman Acker III, acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III. The United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations and Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case and U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section Trial Attorney Charles Schmitz and Assistant U.S. Attorney John Parris prosecuted the case.

“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,” stated the release. “Led by U.S. Attorneys’ 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.”

READ ABOUT MORE NEWS HERE.

RECENT HEADLINES:

Final member of North Carolina heroin trafficking organization sentenced to 57 months in prison

North Carolina man sentenced to over 10 years in prison for cocaine charges