Disgraced Navy SEAL who molested his daughter when she was just five sentenced to 60 years in prison
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA: A former decorated Coronado-based Navy SEAL who admitted to molesting his own daughter from when she was just five years old will spend decades in state prison.
Former Petty Officer 1st Class Gregory Kyle Seerden, 33, was sentenced to 60 years behind bars after pleading guilty to multiple felony counts, according to Fox San Diego.
His young daughter, now 12, delivered a powerful testimony about the abuse at Seerden's preliminary hearing this year and the man pleaded guilty to seven felony counts of lewd acts on a child.
While the girl was not present for his sentencing this past week, her mother showed up to deliver a victim impact statement.
"I've seen a man that was sworn to uphold a better standard of values getting away with the most heinous acts of crime that I can think of," she said. "How many broken lives lie at the feet of the defendant? We can start healing today by making him answer for his crimes for every day for the rest of his pathetic existence."
Deputy District Attorney Amy Colby praised the victim and her mother for coming forward.
"She faced her abuser and bravely testified about the things that happened to her," Colby said.
"While he may at some point have been hired to protect the country, and at some point, people looked at him as a hero, she's the true hero here. Because of her testimony and her bravery, she is preventing any future crimes like this from happening."
Seerden will serve his state and federal prison terms consecutively and must also register for life as a sex offender.
Seerden's crimes first came to light when he was stationed in Norfolk for a week of training at the Little Creek base in Virginia Beach on January 2017.
Back then, a woman had reported that Seerden raped her inside the Navy Gateway Inns and Suites at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story but he was not charged in that case. However, an investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) did find some other disturbing evidence against the 33-year-old.
The NCIS obtained permission from Seerden's commanding officer to search his smartphone and found 78 photos and four videos of prepubescent children engaged in sex acts. Court documents filed in connection to that case stated that in the videos, Seerden could be seen touching a sleeping five-year-old girl with his penis.
Seerden was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to producing child pornography in the U.S. District Court in Norfolk.
During those proceedings, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney David Layne revealed that Seerden was also facing similar charges in San Diego, California, for a "strikingly similar" 2014 incident.
In that case, Seerden was charged in San Diego with sexually abusing another family member in 2014, when she was seven years old.
Layne said that NCIS had investigated the allegations at the time but did not proceed further as the mother was reluctant to pursue the case. But that changed after his conviction in Virginia.