By Forum Staff
A Syracuse medical student has been sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty back in June to promoting sexual performance by a child. The defendant, identified as Brennan Chan, 36, of Jamaica, Queens plead guilty before Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard L. Buchter, tacked ten years probation onto the sentence, along with the requirement to register as a sex offender.
Chan admitted to sharing over 800 pictures and videos online of underage children depicted in a sexual manner and performing various sexual acts.
“There was a time when vile and disturbing videos were mostly exchanged in dimly lit back alleys, but today turning on a computer and accessing the internet is all one needs for a peep show into the perverted,” said District Attorney Brown. “These digital files are for all intents and purposes images of crime scenes. They depict real children being cruelly victimized both physically and emotionally. These youngsters will carry the painful memories into adulthood and will live with the impact for their rest of their lives.”
Charges say that, on July 4, 2014, a special agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations made use of a law enforcement tool to investigate individuals in the New York City area sharing images and videos of child sexual abuse. The special agent made a direct connection with an IP (Internet Protocol) address that was being used by Chan and was able to download a video file, approximately 51 minutes in length, that was being shared. That file showed an eleven-year-old girl removing her clothing and exhibiting her genitalia and then performing sexual acts with an adult male and with another girl, who was younger than 16.
A detective with the New York City Police Department’s Vice Major Case team used the same law enforcement tool on January 3, 2015, and connected to the IP address being used by Chan. The detective observed a list of files that were being shared by the defendant and was able to download two of those videos – one of an approximate 12-year-old female performing a sexual act with an adult male and the other showed a girl of a similar age taking off her clothes and performing in a sexual manner.
Further investigation discovered that Chan was using his neighbor’s internet service, have been given the wireless password several years before. Then, on February 3, 2015, a court-authorized search warrant was executed at the defendant’s Jamaica, Queens home and a preliminary forensic exam at that time on his computer found approximately numerous videos showing children under the age of twelve involved in sexual acts with adult males or performing in a sexual manner.
