FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 11, 2007

Jim Rybicki Further Information Contact:
Public Information Officer Deanna Warren
Phone (703) 842-4050 Fax: (703) 549-5202 Phone: (757) 441-6331
Email: usavae.press@usdoj.gov
Web Address: www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae

Virginia Beach Man Sentenced to 21 Years for Child Exploitation Offense

(Norfolk, VA) John Phillips Rockel, age 57, of Virginia Beach, was sentenced today in Norfolk Federal Court to 21 years in prison on a charge of attempting to entice a minor to engage in illegal sexual acts over the internet. Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, made the announcement after Rockel was sentenced by United States District Judge Raymond M. Jackson. Rockel was also fined $15,000, and faces a lifetime term of supervised release upon completing his term of incarceration. He had pled guilty to this offense on June 15, 2007.

According to court documents, the case arose from an undercover investigation conducted by a state law enforcement officer in Utah who was chatting on-line in a fetish chat room while posing as the mother of two girls, ages eight and ten. Rockel began chatting with the undercover officer in July 2006, and over the next eight months regularly discussed engaging in sexual activity with the fictitious mother and her daughters and to pay for their travel from Utah to Virginia. In late March 2007 Rockel purchased plane tickets in the names of the fictitious mother and two daughters for their travel from Utah to Norfolk and made reservations at a Virginia Beach hotel for the dates of the planned trip. At the time of this offense, Rockel was on three years of probation imposed by a Pennsylvania court as the result of his 2005 guilty plea to a charge of Indecent Assault on a Minor under the age of 13.

In February 2006, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The investigation was conducted by the Department of Homeland Security-Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Davis County, Utah, Sheriff’s Department (part of the Northern Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force), the Virginia Beach Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Michael C. Moore is prosecuting the case for the United States.