Man sentenced for sexually assaulting preschool-aged children: 'I did what I did'
(Photo by J. Conrad Williams Jr./Newsday RM via Getty Images)
BIG SPRING, Texas - A 25-year-old Big Spring, Texas man who hid photos of himself sexually assaulting preschool-aged children inside what appeared to be a calculator app on his phone has been sentenced to 60 years in federal prison.
According to court documents, the investigation began when Barreto’s ex-girlfriend alerted police that she saw internet searches for child pornography on his phone. She told officers that when she confronted him, Barreto admitted to using cryptocurrency to purchase child sexual abuse imagery and said "age did not matter" to him."
Forensic examiners searched the phone and found hundreds of photos and at least 30 videos of adult men sexually abusing children, including toddlers. They also found a storage application disguised as a calculator, where Barreto hid videos of him sexually assaulting 4- and 5-year-old girls.
"I mean, I can’t deny it," he said, when confronted by officers. "I did what I did."
"My baby girl, she seems to have been more withdrawn and sensitive… she’s had nightmares," the mother of a victim said in a statement read into the record at sentencing. "Those acts he did are of a monster, and I believe he is one in the truest form."
Humberto Barreto, Jr., was indicted in January and pleaded guilty in June to two counts of production of child pornography. He was sentenced last Thursday by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix to 30 years per count to run consecutively for a total of 60 years and ordered to register as a sex offender.