Stratford Man Admits Producing and Distributing Child Pornography

Leonard C Boyle, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that EDWARD GALPIN, 39, of Stratford, pleaded guilty yesterday before U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer in New Haven to offenses related to the sexual exploitation of multiple children.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Galpin was an administrator of a private Kik messaging app chat group that provided a forum for members to discuss their sexual interest in young children and exchange images and videos of child sexual abuse.  As a group administrator, Galpin distributed child pornography, requested it from other group members, and removed from the group certain members who did not share child pornography.  Galpin possessed and shared a significant amount of child pornography, including images and videos of prepubescent minors and content portraying sadistic and masochistic conduct and the sexual abuse of toddlers.

The investigation also revealed that Galpin used Instagram to identify young girls for the purpose of soliciting or producing child pornography.  In one instance, Galpin arranged to meet with a 17-year-old girl, picked her up at her house, and engaged in sexually explicit conduct with her.  Galpin recorded the sexual encounter and then shared images and videos on Kik.  In another instance, Galpin identified a 15-year-old girl via Instagram and enticed her to send him sexually explicit images of herself.  The victim did so using Instagram’s “self-destruct” feature, which automatically deletes an image after a short time.  However, Galpin recorded video of his conversation with the victim so he could retain the images he received.  In a third instance, Galpin contacted an eighth-grade girl via Instagram direct message and subsequently received from her a video and other images of her engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Galpin also used spy cameras to record videos of women and girls while they were undressing.  Galpin then distributed the videos, including video of a minor girl, via Kik.

In June 2020, Galpin contacted a Kik account operated by an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a 14-year-old girl.  Galpin asked the “girl” when her “mom” would be away from home and arranged to meet the “girl” at a coffee shop in Connecticut.  On June 25, 2020, after Galpin arrived at the scheduled time and place, law enforcement approached him and seized his iPhone.  He was arrested later that day and has been detained since his arrest.

Galpin was originally charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.  The case was then transferred to the District of Connecticut.

Galpin pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child pornography, an offense that carries a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 15 years and a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years on each count, and two counts of distribution of child pornography, an offense that carries a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of five years and a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years on each count.

Judge Meyer scheduled sentencing for June 2, 2021.

This investigation has been conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New Haven and Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Police (D.C.) Department’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert S. Ruff and Sarala V. Nagala in the District of Connecticut, and Assistant U.S. Attorney April Russo in the District of Columbia.

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.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

To report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com.