A daycare owner in New York City will spend two and a half decades in prison for sexually abusing one of the children in his care. The defendant, Silfredo Castillo Martinez, 34, also possessed approximately 9,800 photos of child sexual abuse material, according to the Department of Justice in the Southern District of New York. On Thursday, the judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison.
Lina’s Garden Day Care was owned and operated by Castillo Martinez from July 2015 to May 2022 from his house on Decatur Avenue in Williamsbridge, the northern Bronx, according to police. From May to July 2018, he recorded himself sexually molesting an 11-year-old.
Years later, on April 25, 2022, Google alerted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about a user’s apparent upload of child sexual abuse material. Law enforcement conducted a search warrant on May 3 and seized approximately 30 electronic devices he owns. Inside, they discovered child sexual assault materials, including a video of an 11-year-old abuse survivor. Authorities claimed they identified the youngster and discovered from the victim’s mother that she had been attending the daycare for several years.
According to records, the defendant revealed to investigators after Miranda that he uploaded the abuse material to his Google Drive account. On March 21, he pled guilty to sexual exploitation of a minor and producing child pornography.
“Silfredo Castillo Martinez exploited the trust placed in him as a daycare provider by sexually abusing one of the minor children under his care and recording that abuse,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York in a statement. “This lengthy prison sentence holds Castillo Martinez accountable for his horrific crimes and the extraordinary harm and trauma he caused.”
Source: Law&Crime