Law enforcement officials linked Guerra’s IP address to a series of files containing images of child pornography uploaded to ARES, a peer-to-peer file sharing network.
By Michael V. Cusenza
EDITOR’S NOTE: Please be aware that the details contained in the following report are extremely graphic.
A Woodhaven man has been convicted of sharing dozens of videos of children as young as 6 engaging in sexually explicit acts via an online file-sharing network, Acting Queens District Attorney John Ryan announced on Monday.
The explicit videos—and additional images of children as young as 2 participating in vulgar sex acts—were retrieved from a computer and other electronic devices recovered from the defendant’s 87th Avenue residence.
Following a two-week trial, a jury found Diego Guerra, 41, guilty of 68 counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child. Sentencing has been scheduled for July 30, at which time Guerra faces up to seven years in prison, Ryan noted.
According to the charges, while utilizing an internet software tool on Jan. 5, 2017, law enforcement officials linked Guerra’s Internet Protocol address to a series of files containing images of child pornography uploaded to ARES, a peer-to-peer file sharing network. Detectives assigned to the City Police Department’s Special Investigations Division determined that Guerra shared multiple videos of children between the ages of 6 and 12 engaging in explicit sexual acts with other underage children and several adult men. Some of the videos depicted children as young as 6 being vaginally penetrated by adult men, while others showcased teenage boys between 10 and 12 engaging in lewd sexual acts.
On Jan. 19, 2017, authorities retrieved an additional video from Guerra’s account. The video—which was 24 minutes in length—showcased a teenage boy performing a sexual act on a girl whom authorities believed was between the ages of 6 and 8 years old. The video then depicts a man giving instructions to the boy as he continued to vaginally penetrate the young girl. Shortly after obtaining this file, authorities subpoenaed records pertaining to the IP address associated with the account. It was subsequently determined that Guerra was sharing the videos.
Detectives executed a search warrant at Guerra’s home on July 27, 2017. Once inside the residence, authorities encountered the defendant who admitted to owning a laptop and several other electronic devices retrieved from the house. A forensic exam performed on the laptop recovered 60 additional images of children between the ages of 2 and 12 with their genitals exposed and engaging in lewd sexual acts.
“This defendant partook in the vile act of sharing lewd videos of children on the internet. These horrifying crimes should serve as reminder to all that the internet must be policed in order to prevent further instances of children being violated and degraded in the worst imaginable ways,” Ryan fumed. “The defendant deserves to be adequately sentenced for his role in this despicable crime.”
According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, a non-profit corporation whose mission is to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization, as of November 2018, its CyberTipline has received more than 43 million reports of child sexual abuse imagery; its Child Victim Identification Program has reviewed more than 267 million photos/videos; and more than 15,800 victims have been identified by law enforcement.
