Sacramento, California - Orest Shaynyuk, 22, resident of Fair Oaks, was sentenced yesterday by United States District Judge John A. Mendez to 57 months in prison for Possession of Child Pornography, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

According to court documents, in July 2013, Shaynyuk was found with a cell phone containing multiple videos and photos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including two between the ages of 12 and 15. The cell phone also contained communications between Shaynyuk and various underage females with the purpose of enticing the underage females into sex. Shaynyuk solicited and received photographs of females that he knew to be minors engaging in sex acts, and made some of the images and videos of the minors himself using his cell phone camera. Shaynyuk used Internet messaging programs to communicate with underage females and in some cases send them naked pictures of himself, and admitted to having sexual contact with numerous different underage females. Shaynyuk has been in custody since his arrest on July 10, 2013.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. Assistant United States Attorneys Christopher S. Hales and Kyle Reardon prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative 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 those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. Click on the “resources” tab for information about Internet safety.