Federal Way man gets nearly 20 years in prison for directing child rape over Internet

SEATTLE -- A 66-year-old Federal Way man was sentenced Monday to 238 months in prison and lifetime supervised release for receipt and possession of child porn.

Andrew Mark Salazar pleaded guilty in federal court in April, admitting that he directed women to perform sex acts on young children while he watched the rapes via webcam.

The victims were impoverished children in the Philippines whose family members were paid for producing the images of sex assault, U.S. Attorney Annette Hayes said.

At sentencing, U.S. District Judge James Robart said Salazar “bears responsibility for directing conduct by others to victimize these children… The conduct is beyond the limits of what society accepts and will not be tolerated.”

Hayes said in a news release,  “This defendant thought he could hide behind a computer screen while he reached across the world and horrifically damaged young children."

According to court documents, Salazar was caught after he took his phone into a Spring store to transfer pictures and data to a new phone.  Technicians discovered images of children being sexually assaulted on the phone.

Agent searching Salazar's home found several devices with images of children from foreign countries being sexually assaulted while the defendant directed the conduct via webcam and chat sessions, Hayes said.

Salazar made payments through Western Union and PayPal, and threatened to stop paying the women if they did not follow his directions.

He had a prior conviction for rape of a 13-year-old girl in Texas in 1975, Hayes said.