VIRGINIA BEACH – A 58-year-old local man pleaded guilty this week to 10 counts of possession of child pornography.
Jeffrey Dirocco was sentenced to four years in prison, with an additional 11 years suspended, according to the Virginia Attorney General’s Office.
Upon the completion of his prison term, Dirocco will be placed on supervised release indefinitely and will be required to register as a sex offender.
Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring made the announcement following sentencing by Virginia Beach Circuit Court Judge William R. O’Brien.
“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,” Herring said. “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.”
The investigation involving Dirocco began in 2015 when an undercover agent for the Virginia State Police downloaded several images of child pornography over a peer-to-peer network.
Further investigation revealed that an individual living in Virginia Beach was distributing the child pornography. Agents subsequently executed a search warrant on the home where “they encountered and interviewed Dirocco,” according to the AG’s office.
Dirocco admitted to having hundreds of child pornography files on his computer saved within a peer-to-peer network 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, Herring said.
