Woodbridge man gets 40 years for sexual exploitation of children and possessing child pornography
by Brad Matthews · The Washington TimesA federal judge sentenced a Woodbridge man to 40 years in prison for sexually exploiting minors and possessing child sexual abuse material.
From at least March through October 2020, Malachi Morgan Thomas, now 24, used a hacked Snapchat account he stole from a minor to coerce 41 girls between the ages of 12 and 17 to engage in sexually explicit acts on video calls and to send him recordings of child sexual abuse material, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a release.
Thomas told the girls that he led a criminal organization and that if they complied, they would be safe. Conversely, he told them that if they did not agree to his demands, he would hack their accounts or harm them and their family members, federal prosecutors said.
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On June 6, 2020, Thomas traveled to the home of one of his victims and recorded himself assaulting them. The video was recovered after police seized one of his phones after a July 9, 2020, altercation at the Potomac Mills mall in Woodbridge; Thomas went there to meet up with a victim, but the victim’s father, aware of what Thomas had done, showed up instead, federal prosecutors said.
Thomas has also been prosecuted under Virginia state law. The Fairfax County Police Department arrested him in October 2020 on charges of rape and sodomy against two minors in the county. At that time, police recovered another phone containing more recordings and child sexual abuse material, including material depicting the two minors in question, federal prosecutors said.
He was convicted in Fairfax County Circuit Court of rape, sodomy and taking indecent liberties with a child younger than 15 in July 2024 and was sentenced to 45 years in prison with 20 suspended on the rape charge, 10 years in prison on the indecent liberties charge and to 20 years of probation on the sodomy charge, according to court records cited by FFXNow.
Thomas was also convicted and sentenced in Prince William County, Virginia, for possession of child pornography, leading to his registration as a sex offender in 2021, according to FFXNow.
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