Violent sexual offender sentenced to 15 years in prison for online exploitation of minors

Seattle – A 72–year-old Skagit County man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 15 years in prison for receipt and possession of images of child sexual abuse, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller. Alan Lewis Meirhofer is a repeat violent sex offender, who was civilly committed to the McNeil Island sexual predator detention facility for seventeen years. He has been in custody since his arrest in 2021 when he was found to possess images of child sexual abuse. At the sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge John H. Chun said, “This case involves very serious, terrible, and heartbreaking crimes.”

“Following his release from civil commitment, Mr. Meirhofer adapted his predatory behavior to modern technology,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Miller. “He exploited children via the internet. In just over two years there were 14 cyber tips to the Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) because of his sexual exploitation of minors via Google and Instagram.”

According to records filed in the case, Meirhofer befriended teen boys in the Skagit County area by inviting them to hang out at his residence, where he provided them “gifts’ such as food, clothing, alcohol, cash, and marijuana. When one of the boys borrowed Meirhofer’s phone, he noticed that Meirhofer had sent members of a group chat, images of his friends. The teen also saw images of child sexual abuse on the phone. The teen’s mother alerted police and Meirhofer was arrested in March 2021 and his electronic devices were seized.

An examination of the devices revealed that Meirhofer received and shared child sexual abuse material while he served as the administrator of a Telegram group singularly devoted to sharing child pornography and coordinating pedophilic relationships between adults and minors. Investigators also located deeply disturbing communications with minors Meirhofer was grooming and paying for sexually explicit photos… (The agent) located attempts by Meirhofer to “set up” the minors with Meirhofer’s registered sex offender friends.

In 1988 Meirhofer was convicted of burglary, kidnapping, and rape. In all, Meirhofer broke into at least four different homes, cutting the phone lines and raping 13-year-old children at knife point. One victim was stalked and then kidnapped from his Bellingham home. In 1990, Meirhofer was convicted of Burglary in the First Degree While Armed with a Deadly Weapon and Assault in the Second Degree. In 2000, Meirhofer was civilly committed to the sexually violent predator Civil Commitment Center on McNeil Island.  He was released in 2017 as a registered sex offender level 3, the level with the highest risk of reoffending.

In asking for a 15-year prison sentence Assistant United States Attorney Cecelia Gregson wrote to the court, “Meirhofer comes before this Court for sentencing like no other defendant. His prior convictions and relevant conduct demonstrate he is the very worst thing that can happen to a child. Alan Meirhofer represents every parent’s worst nightmare and every child’s boogeyman. Decades of incarceration did not deter him from sexually exploiting children at the first opportunity provided. Meirhofer never engaged in sexual deviancy treatment while on McNeil Island because he never intended to stop feeding his deviancy. Meirhofer learned to utilize technology in order to ferret out new paths to abuse children despite his age, appearance, and poor physical condition.”

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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 to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

The case is being investigated by the FBI, the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office, the Bellingham Police Department, and the Skagit County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Cecelia Gregson.