Clearwater Man Sentenced To 22 Years In Federal Prison For Filming His Sexual Assault Of A 12-Year-Old Child

Tampa, Florida – U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell has sentenced Sergio Lohan (25, Clearwater) to 22 years in federal prison for filming his sexual assault of a minor child using a cellphone. Lohan was also ordered to serve a 20-year term of supervised release and to register as a sex offender. Lohan had pleaded guilty on August 17, 2021.

According to the court documents, Lohan and the child victim, who was 12 years old, met online on a social media application. Over time, Lohan engaged in sexually explicit conversations with the child, solicited and received sexually explicit images from her, and sent her a video showing himself masturbating. Within a few months of meeting, Lohan drove to the child victim’s home, picked her up in his car, sexually assaulted her, and video-recorded the assault using his cellphone. Later, Lohan sent this video to the child using the internet.

The FBI, while investigating this offense, executed a search warrant at Lohan’s residence and seized his computer. On the computer, they recovered evidence of Lohan’s sexual abuse and exploitation of this child victim, as well as sexually explicit communications with other individuals who had identified themselves as minor children.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the North Port Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Erin Claire Favorit.

This is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.