A former Navy sailor, formerly of Norfolk, was sentenced Wednesday to 40 months in prison and 20 years of supervised release for possession of child pornography.
According to federal court documents, Dustin Lee Sharbono, 29, of Kalispell, Montana, downloaded hundreds of images and videos of child pornography prior to a deployment.
“Sharbono’s criminal activity was revealed when a fellow Sailor discovered Sharbono’s cellular phone misplaced in a common area aboard the ship,” prosecutors wrote in a news release. “The Sailor attempted to identify the phone’s owner, and stumbled upon images of child pornography within the ‘Kik Messenger’ application.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service’s investigation of Sharbono, who was by then at sea, discovered a laptop computer and tablet device in his possession, both containing additional child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Sharbono “attempted to conceal his activity” by using an application known as “Hide It Pro,” which stores files in a seemingly benign folder on one’s digital media devices and disguises itself as an audio manager application, court papers indicated.
Metadata associated with the Kik application, and other child pornography media in Sharbono’s possession confirmed he downloaded the images in the weeks leading up to his deployment while his ship was in port in Norfolk, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
