NEWPORT NEWS — A 23-year-old Navy sailor was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison for traveling from Newport News to Louisiana to have sex with a minor, and for receiving child pornography.
According to court documents, Saleem Omarie Forbes, of Newport News, had a two-year online relationship with a 13-year-old girl.
Federal prosecutors said “the two communicated via a text messaging application until finally agreeing to meet in person in March 2017, when Forbes took leave from his Navy command and traveled to Louisiana to meet the minor.”
Forbes picked up the girl near her middle school and drove to a local motel, where he provided her alcohol “and engaged in sexual acts with her,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Prosecutors said Forbes knew the girl was only 13.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigated Forbes and found that he also received child porn on both his cellphone and laptop computer before he went to Louisiana.
This case was brought as 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.
For information about Project Safe Childhood, click here.
This story was published in partnership with our sister publication, HNNDaily.
