A U.S. court on Jan. 30 sentenced to life in prison a U.S. citizen who had claimed to help orphanages in Ukraine. He was convicted of sexual exploitation of a minor, possession of child pornography and concealment of evidence.
The decision was made by the U.S. Court for the Southern District of Indiana. Among other things, Charles Skaggs, Jr. was found guilty of sexually exploiting his own underage daughter in Indiana by producing sexually explicit videos of her.
“Sexual predators, like Charles Skaggs, who think they can avoid U.S. laws by traveling abroad for the purpose of sexually exploiting children will find no safe refuge upon their return to the U.S.,” said Tracy J. Cormier, a special agent at Homeland Security Investigations. “HSI proudly stands with our law enforcement partners and remains steadfastly committed to doing all we can to stop this heinous practice.”
The Skaggs case began in 2015 as an investigation by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, of child sex tourism in Ukraine, including Skaggs’ work with orphanages there.
Martin Foley, a journalist who has investigated the Skaggs case, told the Kyiv Post that Skaggs had visited orphanages in Kyiv and Mykolayiv and claimed to be helping them and raising funds for them.
The U.S. investigation focused on Skaggs’ actions in Indiana, while his work with Ukrainian orphanages has been investigated by the Ukrainian police, who have made no progress so far, Foley said.
In 2016, Skaggs was searched at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport during his return trip from Ukraine to Indiana and arrested by the FBI. Law enforcement officers recovered thumb drives that contained child pornography, including that produced by Skaggs in Indiana.
Law enforcement officers have also found a hard drive that Skaggs had hidden in the ceiling of a shared laundry room in his residence. The hard drive contained images of videos of child pornography, including copies of the same pornography found on the thumb drives seized at the airport.
“Today’s sentence sends a strong message to those who seek to exploit our minor children that you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, particularly those with prior records of child exploitation,” U.S. Attorney Josh J. Minkler said, as cited in a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the southern district of Indiana. “Protecting our youth from sexual predators will always remain a top priority of this office and this life sentence will ensure that the public is safe from any future victimization from this defendant.”
Skaggs had a prior conviction out of Indiana’s Clark County for having sexual intercourse with a minor.
Journalist Martin Foley contributed to this story.
