A Jamaica man was sentenced to two years in prison followed by three years of post release supervision for what is believed to be the the largest indictment for the possession of child sexual exploitation materials in Queens County history, according to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz. The defendant must also register as a sex offender.
Vishal Lalbeharry, the 31-year-old defendant from Jamaica, pleaded guilty to thousands of counts of promoting child sex abuse and possessing almost 6,000 images of children being molested in October, according to the DA’s office.
“This defendant has now been held accountable for possessing such a horrific collection of images of children — including babies — being defiled in the most horrific and sickening ways,” Katz said. “I would like to make it clear to all that merely possessing images and/or videos involving children being sexually abused are crimes and will be vigorously prosecuted.”
Lalbeharry also pleaded guilty to charges that he had sex with a dog after authorities found videos of the incident on Lalbeharry’s electronic devices. Lalbeharry possessed thousands of photos and videos of children being abused by adult men and women. In total, Lalbeharry pleaded guilty to over 17,000 counts brought against him.
Dozens of statements written by Lalbeharry’s victims were read allowed during his sentencing. The process took over two hours to complete, according to the DA’s office.
In March 2018, a detective found that Lalbeharry’s IP address had downloaded 1,150 files containing images of children being sexually abused, according to authorities. The NYPD seized four laptops, four cellphones and five hard drives from the defendant’s bedroom.
