A former pharmacy technician who sexually abused his 5-year-old niece and created a video montage of explicit images of the child will spend the next 35 years in prison, a San Diego judge ruled Friday.
Damian Clemente Mora, 31, of El Centro, Calif., pleaded guilty in March to two counts of sexual exploitation of a child.
According to sentencing documents, investigators discovered that Mora had photographed and videotaped his niece 512 times in sexually explicit positions and stored the images on his digital devices, including his computer, camera, table and a thumb drive.
The abuse happened over a two-year period.
Investigators said Mora compiled the hundreds of images into a disturbing eight-minute video montage that included upbeat music and an off-color subtitle that read, “Starring: A Loving Uncle.”
Prosecutors said Mora boasted about the photos “to other pedophiles and cavalierly wrote about finding additional victims.”
In a letter addressed to the court, the victim’s mother wrote that “an entire lifetime [behind bars] would not be enough for this man to pay for what he did.”
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U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy said she hoped Mora’s sentencing would bring some sense of peace to the victim and her family and prevent the guilty from victimizing other children.
“No amount of time will ever restore the innocence of a 5-year-old girl, who will forever be haunted by the memory of two years of sexual abuse at the hands of her own uncle. No amount of time will diminish a mother’s pain and anguish over the victimization of her child,” Duffy said.
Mora’s case was handled by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) El Centro.
In addition to his time in prison, Mora was sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release and must register as a sex offender.
