A Jamaica man pleaded guilty to 17,725 charges related to promoting a sexual performance by a child, possessing a sexual performance by a child and sexual misconduct, the Queens District Attorney’s office announced Thursday.
Vishal Lalbeharry, 31, of 95th Avenue, also pleaded guilty to charges that he had sex with a dog, an act which was recorded and found with several other disturbing images on his electronic devices, prosecutors said, adding that he allegedly downloaded thousands of photos and videos of children — some as young as 6 months old — being abused by men and women.
“This defendant has now admitted to having a horrid collection of downloaded images of children – including little babies – being defiled in the most horrific and sickening ways,” said Acting District Attorney John M. Ryan. “The images accumulated by this defendant contained some of the most heinous abuse imaginable. It can not be stressed enough – pictures and videos of children being sexually abused are crime scene images and the youngsters are crime victims.”
According to the charges, in March 2018 a detective conducting an online investigation detected IP addresses that were sharing child sexual abuse images. The software identified Lalbeharry’s computer address as having downloaded 1,150 files containing images of children — including babies — being sexually abused by adult men.
Between March and April 2018, Lalbeharry’s computer was allegedly active on a network that downloaded as many as 10,240 files, most of which are photos and videos of children — none older than 10 years old — being sexually abused, according to charges. At the time of the defendant’s arrest, he stated in sum and substance that no one else used his computer.
According to court records, police seized four computer laptops, four cell phones and five hard drives from Lalbeharry’s bedroom. A subsequent forensic analysis showed thousands of images of children, along with 16 video recordings showing Lalbeharry having sexual intercourse with a dog.
Lalbeharry pleaded guilty to the charges in front of Queens Supreme Court Justice Stephanie Zaro on Wednesday. Lalbeharry faces up to two years in prison, followed by three years’ post release supervision and a lifetime on the sex offender registry at his Dec. 11 sentencing hearing.
