Elementary School Para-Educator Sentenced For Child-Exploitation Crimes

A elementary school para-educator was sentenced today to 12 1/2 years in prison and 20 years of supervised release for the attempted coercion and enticement of a minor and distribution of child pornography.

“Irfan was an elementary school employee who was entrusted with teaching and protecting our community’s children,” said G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “But he was also a wolf in sheep’s clothing looking to prey on the most vulnerable members of our society, and he undertook a horrific hunt for opportunities to sexually abuse children. Our office is committed to working closely with state, local and federal authorities to ferret out such sexual predators, and we commend our investigative partners for their work in this case.”

According to court documents, Monis Irfan, 21, of Springfield, a substitute teacher and third-grade instructional assistant at two Fairfax County elementary schools, began communicating online with an undercover Fairfax County police detective who was posing as the father of a seven-year-old child in January 2019. Irfan repeatedly told the detective that he was interested in and sexually active with children, and discussed his desire to perform graphic sexual acts on the detective’s fictitious child. After several days of sending sexually explicit messages and images, Irfan drove to a predetermined location to meet the undercover detective and engage in sexual acts with the child.  Irfan was arrested at that time. Additional investigation revealed that Irfan received and distributed child pornography videos depicting the sexual abuse of an infant over encrypted messaging apps on his mobile phone, and also used his phone to record a video of himself engaging in sexually inappropriate behavior with a five-year-old child.