MA Man Who Used Social Media For Child Sex Gets Long Prison Term: U.S. Attorney

WORCESTER, MA — A Worcester man arrested three years ago for possession of child sex abuse images was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison recently.

Kenneth Gianatasio, 44, was first arrested in August 2019 after FBI agents searched his phone and found the sex abuse materials. The FBI came into contact with Gianatasio because he was attempting to find underage girls to have sex with, prosecutors said.

In March, Gianatasio pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography and one count of distribution of child pornography.

According to the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston, Gianatasio used the messenger app Kik to find and meet underage girls for sex. During one such bid, Gianatasio started chatting with an undercover FBI agent, who Gianatasio thought was the parent of an underage girl.

"During the conversation, Gianatasio requested to meet the agent in order to engage in sexual activity with the agent’s fictitious underage daughter," prosecutors said in a news release. "During subsequent interviews with law enforcement, Gianatasio admitted that he used Kik as well as other applications to distribute, receive, and possess images and videos of child pornography as well as engage others in conversations about meeting to perform sexual acts on children."

Gianatasio's iPhone and iPad contained thousands of child sex abuse images, prosecutors said.

Apart from the 12-year prison term, Gianatasio will leave prison to serve eight years under supervised release.