Former Navy Petty Officer Adam M. Simpson was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Hartford to 10 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release for enticing minors to perform sexually explicit acts during online video chats.

Simpson, 30, of Benton, Pa., was stationed at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton and served aboard the USS Hartford, but has been discharged from the Navy due to his conviction, according to court documents. He has been incarcerated since he was arrested on related state charges on Jan. 7, 2014. On June 29, 2016, he pleaded guilty to one count of using an interstate facility to entice a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity.

According to the government, between January 2013 and November 2013, Simpson used Internet video chatting services such as Skype, Omegle and ooVoo, to entice girls between the ages of 12 and 16 to perform sexual acts and engage in sexually explicit conduct, which Simpson then recorded and saved on his computer. In order to deceive the minors, he misrepresented his age and utilized videos of young boys to impersonate being a young boy himself.

The case was investigated by the Connecticut State Police Computer Crimes Unit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Connecticut Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service also assisted. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Neeraj N. Patel and heard before U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant. 

This prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation. To report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com.