Michael Joseph Pepe, a former member of the United States Navy, was sentenced this Monday to 210 years in federal prison, after being convicted of abusing sexually multiple girls while he was in Cambodia in the 2007.
The VC Star report yesterday specifies Pepe, from 68 years, was sentenced by District Judge Dale S. Fischer, who classified the convict’s actions as “monstrous” and “horrendous”.
A restitution hearing is scheduled for February 28.
The abuser has been in federal custody since 2007 when charged traveling to Cambodia to engage in illicit sexual acts with minors. According to the federal Department of Justice, the man was originally sentenced in 2010. However, the decision was annulled by an appeals court in 2018.
The authorities filed new charges, and the accused had to return to Court in August of 2021.
As part of the new trial, which lasted seven days and was held in the Federal District Court in Los Angeles , eight victims testified against Pepe. The youngest of the victims were between 9 and 12 years old. They denounced that the man drugged them and tied them up during the attacks.
The evidence that the prosecutors presented in court, as home-made child pornography material, corroborated the testimonies of the victims.
At the end of the trial, Pepe was found guilty of two counts of sexual abuse of minors and two counts of traveling to a foreign country. foreigners to engage in illegal sexual conduct.
The case was investigated by personnel from the United States Homeland Security Investigations and the Cambodian National Police.
Pepe, originally from Oxnard, California, was working as a part-time teacher at a University of Cambodia when he was arrested.