Navy SEAL charged with molesting young girl on camera

NORFOLK, Va. (Tribune News Service) — A member of SEAL Team 1 was arrested earlier this month on federal charges he recorded himself molesting a sleeping child earlier this year.

Petty Officer 1st Class Gregory Kyle Seerden was picked up in San Diego, where he is stationed. U.S. Marshals are in the process of bringing him back to Virginia to be arraigned on four felonies, including production of child pornography.

If convicted on the production charge alone, he faces a minimum of 15 years in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Yusi declined to comment on the case. Court records do not list an attorney for Seerden.

Lieutenant Zachary Keating, a spokesman for Naval Special Warfare Group 1, stressed they were working with the "investigative authorities" handling the case, but declined further comment.

The charges against Seerden, filed March 31 and unsealed Wednesday, stemmed from a Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation of an unrelated sexual assault for which he does not currently face any charges.

A woman reported Seerden raped her last January inside a hotel at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story. The woman said she went out drinking with Seerden Jan. 26, and she began blacking out. She remembered Seerden on top of her in his hotel room and her telling Seerden to stop, but nothing else.

The woman woke up about 4 a.m. to learn they had had sex. They then left the hotel and Seerden dropped her off at the base's Gate 5, where she subsequently reported the sexual assault to the gate sentry.

Seerden was on temporary duty in Norfolk at the time of the alleged assault, court documents said.

NCIS agents sought and received authorization from Seerden's commanding officer to search Seerden's iPhone 7. A search on Feb. 3 revealed dozens of images of prepubescent girls and boys enaged in sex acts, court documents said. At least one image also appeared to involve a naked child and aroused dog and another involved bondage.

The agents responded by seeking a federal search warrant for the phone, so investigators could conduct a more thorough review. In all, they found 78 images of suspected child pornography, court documents said.

NCIS agents noticed four videos and one photograph appeared to have been made using the phone in question on Jan. 1 and 2, court documents said. They showed a man masturbating next to a sleeping girl and touching her in sexual ways.

The man's face was not captured by the camera, but he was seen to be wearing a light blue shirt, court documents said.

Other photos on the camera time-stamped earlier in the evening showed Seerden wearing a light blue shirt while reading the victim and three other children a book.

It is unclear where the assault allegedly occurred. Court documents indicate the child does not live in Virginia.

—
©2017 The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)
Visit The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.) at pilotonline.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.