Katie 
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.
Yesterday 54-year-old Mexican national Abel Ambrocio, a resident of Alexandria, Virginia, pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child pornography in federal court. His sentencing has been scheduled for August 4, 2021.
According to attorney Raj Parekh, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Ambrocio is accused of coercing a woman in Honduras that he had met over Facebook to sexually abuse her two children, a boy aged approximately 3 and a girl aged approximately 10.
It is believed that Ambrocio began coercing the woman for this material in October of 2018 and that it extended through "at least February 2019."
"Ambrocio instructed the mother to engage in specific sex acts with her children and record herself doing so on multiple occasions, even when she told Ambrocio that one of the children was in pain and crying from the previous sex act," the press release from the Department of Justice reads.
Then in March 2019, Ambrocio was accused of distributing images of the boy being sexually abused to another person. At his arrest on May 19, 2020, Ambrocio was charged additionally with distribution of child pornography but it would seem that charge has been dropped as a part of a plea deal as no mention of it appears in the latest release from the DOJ.
"The defendant's conduct, which caused the sexual abuse of two young children, is both horrific and heartbreaking," Parekh said. "The production of child pornography inflicts devastating and lifelong harm to society's most vulnerable victims. EDVA is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to bring child sexual predators to justice."
Ambrocio faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison when he is sentenced.
Contributor
