Long Beach Man Sentenced to 120 Years in Prison for Continuous Sexual Assault of Infant Relative, Large Stash of Explicit Content
A 32-year-old Long Beach man was sentenced to 120 years to life in prison on Friday for sexually assaulting an infant relative and possessing hundreds of thousands of pornographic photos and videos of prepubescent children.
Ryan Michael Booth, 32, was convicted on March 8 of eight felony counts of oral copulation or sexual penetration with a minor 10 years or younger and five felony counts of using a minor for sex acts, as well as a misdemeanor charge of sexual exploitation of a child, Orange County District Attorney’s officials said.
Booth also received a sentencing enhancement for possessing over 600 images of child pornography, with 10 or more involving a prepubescent minor.
In fact, he had a cache of more than 220,000 sexually explicit photos and videos of prepubescent children and traded the content online for additional child pornography, prosecutors said.
Booth was also found guilty of sexually assaulting an infant relative from the time she was less than 1 year old until she was 2 years old, beginning in 2013 until August 2014.
“She gets to grow up happy and free… you are going to pay for this,” the girl’s father said during the sentencing Friday. “You will never touch another child again.”
The victim’s grandmother also spoke, noting that the abuse is something the toddler will struggle with the rest of her life.
“There is no mercy for you,” she said. “She will carry [this] with her for her whole life.”
Some of Booth’s images were discovered on Aug. 29, 2014, during a child porn investigation conducted by a constable with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The constable traced images of a 2- or 3-year-old girl to Booth’s Internet Protocol (IP) address in Long Beach and passed the case on to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s cyber-crime unit.
Los Angeles police served a warrant at Booth’s home on Sept. 5, 2014, and discovered his stash of child pornography, including photos and videos of Booth in sexual conduct with his 2-year-old relative in his home.
Booth was arrested later that same day.
After LAPD officers discovered he had also sexually assaulted his young relative in her Costa Mesa home, the case was submitted to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.