VIRGINIA MAN SENTENCED FOR CHILD INTERNET ENTICEMENT

This from the office of United States Attorney John L. Brownlee

December 19, 2005

VIRGINIA MAN SENTENCED FOR CHILD INTERNET ENTICEMENT CHARGE

United States Attorney John L. Brownlee announced today that a Barboursville, Virginia man was sentenced to five years in prison, lifetime supervised release, and a fine of $7,500 by United States District Judge Norman K. Moon in U.S. District Court, Charlottesville, Virginia, for one count of using the Internet to entice a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity.

Jeffrey Allen Patch, age 42 and a former Division Manager of the Charlottesville office of Science Application International Corporation (SAIC), a security and intelligence contractor, pled guilty on September 16, 2005, to one count of using a facility or means of interstate commerce to knowingly persuade, induce, entice, or coerce or attempt to persuade, induce, entice, or coerce a minor to engage in sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense, namely, Va. Stat. § 18.2-371 in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2422(b).

In February and March 2004, Patch corresponded with a 16-year-old boy via a Yahoo! chat room and engaged the child in graphic conversation designed to persuade the child to meet him to engage in illegal sexual activity. His later communications, while intended for the 16-year old victim were intercepted by the victim’s mother, who, unbeknownst to Patch, used her son’s identity and internet address to assist police after she had discovered Patch’s earliest chats with her son. During these communications, Patch also used a web camera to send images of his naked body to the child, as well as alleged images of child pornography.

During the sentencing hearing, the young victim’s mother told Judge Moon that she “shudder[ed] to think at what would have happened had [she] not been vigilant in monitoring [her] son’s chat sessions.” She stated that she did not believe that Patch “woke up one morning and decided that he would like to have sex with a young boy or all of a sudden realized that he was attracted to very young innocent girls.” She further told the judge that the images of the children sent by Patch had been “burned into [her] memory for the rest of [her] life” and that “innocent children are sold into prostitution and child pornography because of men like Mr. Patch.”

Patch was also ordered to register as a sex offender when he is released from prison. His supervised release will include restrictions on his computer usage and contact with minors as well as requiring him to undergo mental health and sex offender assessment and treatment as directed by the United States Probation Office.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Nancy S. Healey and Trial Attorney Myesha K. Braden of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. The case was investigated by the Virginia State Police, the Richmond Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the High Tech Investigative Unit of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.