FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 2, 2016
Contact: Heather F. Williamson
Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office
20 East Market Street
Leesburg, VA 20176-2809
(703) 777-0242
ASHBURN MAN SENTENCED FOR FIVE COUNTS OF POSSESSION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
FIVE YEAR SENTENCE IMPOSED
LEESBURG, Virginia – January 29, 2016. Mark Herndon Wascak, 31, appeared before Judge Jeanette A. Irby in Loudoun County Circuit Court for sentencing on five counts of possession of child pornography. Judge Irby imposed a total active sentence of five years in the Virginia Department of Corrections.
In April 2015, law enforcement began a peer to peer file sharing investigation on an IP address that belonged to Wascak. Investigation by Virginia State Police and a search warrant executed on a room that Wascak rented in an Ashburn home, discovered that over eighty images and videos of child pornography.
Wascak plead guilty to the five felonies on November 23, 2015. In addition to the five years of penitentiary time, Judge Irby also imposed an additional five years of suspended time. Upon his release, Wascak will be placed on 10 years of supervised probation and will be required to successfully complete a sex offender treatment program and any other mental health counseling as directed by his probation officer.
Pursuant to Virginia’s Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry Act, Wascak will also be required to register as a sex offender. Information about the Virginia’s Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry and those on it can be found on the Virginia State Police website: http://sex-offender.vsp.virginia.gov.
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