Thursday, March 28, 2024

This Williamsburg man had sex and swapped nude photos with a child

(WYDaily/Courtesy of Western Tidewater Regional Jail)
Derek Thomas (WYDaily/Courtesy of Western Tidewater Regional Jail)

A Williamsburg man was sentenced Friday to six years in prison for travelling to North Carolina to sexually abuse a child, and receiving child pornography from a child in Nebraska.

According to court documents, Derek Thomas, 26, met “Jane Doe No. 1” online and began a relationship during the summer of 2018 when she was 14 years old.

During the summer, both Jane Doe No. 1 and Thomas sent nude images of themselves to one another over social media platforms.

Eventually, Thomas travelled to North Carolina “to engage in sexual activities with the child,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Also, during the summer of 2018, he met Jane Doe No. 2 on-line. They sent nude images of themselves to one another. Thomas knew the age of each victim before the crimes, federal prosecutors said.

John Mangalonzo
John Mangalonzohttp://wydaily.com
John Mangalonzo (john@localdailymedia.com) is the managing editor of Local Voice Media’s Virginia papers – WYDaily (Williamsburg), Southside Daily (Virginia Beach) and HNNDaily (Hampton-Newport News). Before coming to Local Voice, John was the senior content editor of The Bellingham Herald, a McClatchy newspaper in Washington state. Previously, he served as city editor/content strategist for USA Today Network newsrooms in St. George and Cedar City, Utah. John started his professional journalism career shortly after graduating from Lyceum of The Philippines University in 1990. As a rookie reporter for a national newspaper in Manila that year, John was assigned to cover four of the most dangerous cities in Metro Manila. Later that year, John was transferred to cover the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines. He spent the latter part of 1990 to early 1992 embedded with troopers in the southern Philippines as they fought with communist rebels and Muslim extremists. His U.S. journalism career includes reporting and editing stints for newspapers and other media outlets in New York City, California, Texas, Iowa, Utah, Colorado and Washington state.

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