VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A Virginia Beach man was sentenced to 4 years in prison this week.
Jeffrey Dirocco, 58, pleaded guilty to ten counts of possession of child pornography. His sentence includes four years of active imprisonment, with an additional 11 years suspended.
Once he is released, Dirocco will be placed on supervised release indefinitely and will be required to register as a sex offender in any jurisdiction where he lives or works.
The Virginia Attorney General Mark Hering said police started investigating Dirocco's case in 2015. An undercover agent for the Virginia State Police downloaded several images of child pornography over a peer-to-peer network, sparking the investigation.
After further investigating, police learned that an individual living in Virginia Beach was distributing child pornography. Agents executed a search warrant on the residence where they encountered and interviewed Dirocco.
Dirocco admitted to having hundreds of child pornography files on his computer saved within a peer-to-peer network that he had been using for years. A forensic examination of his laptop revealed 1,597 videos of child pornography. Another digital camera and flash drive yielded 34 videos of child pornography.
The hundreds of child pornography images recovered depict children being sexually abused, some of which have been identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as abuse victims in prior law enforcement investigations.
Mark R. Herring, Attorney General of Virginia, made the announcement following sentencing by a Virginia Beach Circuit Court judge:
“People who rob children of their innocence and exploit them through the possession of child pornography should know they will be held accountable for their actions,” said Attorney General Herring. “This is another strong sentence that will take a predator off of our streets, making our communities and our children safer. I want to thank my team and the local law enforcement agencies who were dedicated to working on this case.”
