Former West Point Staff Sergeant Sentenced For Child Pornography

WEST POINT, NY — A former West Point staff sergeant will be going to prison for having child pornography.

United States Attorney Damian Williams announced Thursday that Patrick Edwin Gorychka was sentence to three and a half years in prison for possession of child pornography.

Gorychka, 40, of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, was also sentenced to five years of supervised release, authorities said.

The sentencing followed his guilty plea on May 23.

Williams said his office will continue to prioritize protecting the most vulnerable citizens, children, from this kind of exploitation.

“The availability of children pornography spread through chatrooms and discreet websites is every modern parent’s worst nightmare,” he said.

According to prosecutors, in October 2019, The FBI received information from an online undercover employee about communications with Gorychka who was using the Kik username “epg84,” in a Kik chat room known to be frequented by people with a sexual interest in children.

The undercover agent identified himself as a 48-year-old uncle who had engaged in sex acts with his niece.

Gorychka, who identified himself as “Eric G.,” asked the undercover agent for photos of his niece.

The agent told Gorychka that he had met a “pedo mom” in New York, saying that “she keeps kids of illegals while they work for a couple of weeks” and “makes some $ on the side.”

Gorychka said, “Omg that’s hot” and asked to be connected with the “mom,” who was also an undercover agent going by the name of “Jane.”

“Jane” and Gorychka communicated numerous time between Oct. 31, 2019, and Nov. 16, 2019. He said he was interested in “preteens” and told “Jane,” “I heard that you could potentially facilitate certain things.”

Gorychka said he was interested in a “similar setup” as the first undercover agent and told “Jane” that he had money.

Prosecutors said, on Nov. 2, 2019, Gorychka sent two links to Mega, a New Zealand-based cloud storage platform that permits users to store and share electronic information, including image and videos. Both links contained numerous images and videos of children engaging in sexually explicit activity.

Williams praised the efforts of the FBI, West Point’s Criminal Investigation Division, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Town of New Windsor Police Department in connection with the case.