Former Navy SEAL Sentenced for Sexual Exploitation of a Child

NORFOLK, Va. – A former U.S. Navy SEAL was sentenced today to 27 years in prison, 25 years of supervised release, and fined $10,000 for producing images of child sexual abuse.

According to the statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, the investigation into Gregory Kyle Seerden, 32, began after a woman reported to base security at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia Beach that Seerden sexually assaulted her. After NCIS agents seized and searched Seerden’s iPhone, a digital forensic examiner discovered several images of child pornography. Further analysis confirmed 78 images and four videos of child pornography. Agents later learned that Seerden took the videos with his iPhone, and that the minor victim was a five year-old child known to Seerden. The videos graphically depict Seerden sexually abusing the child while the child sleeps.

“Gregory Seerden victimized a child and used mobile technology to memorialize sexually explicit videos,” said Tracy Doherty-McCormick, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “As this prosecution makes clear, the United States will seek to hold accountable anyone who sexually exploits our most vulnerable citizens.”

Seerden is also charged in San Diego for conduct stemming from the summer of 2014. That case is a reopening of a 2014 NCIS investigation that did not result in prosecution at the time. As described in court documents, the allegations in that case involve another minor known to Seerden, and the recording of  sexual abuse involving the child on an iPhone, and are thus strikingly similar to the acts Seerden pleaded guilty to here.

“Instead of being a protector, Seerden was a predator who attacked a sleeping five year old child,” said Cliff Everton, Special Agent in Charge of the NCIS Norfolk Field Office. “He is the antithesis of every value the military services hold dear.”

Tracy Doherty-McCormick, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Cliff Everton, Special Agent in Charge of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Norfolk Field Office, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney David A. Layne, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth M. Yusi prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources” for more information about Internet safety education.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information is located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 2:17-cr-67.