A former Navy sailor has been sentenced to five years in prison and 15 years of supervised release for the attempted sexual enticement of three minors via a social media application.
Michael David Kirk, 31, received his sentence in federal court from Chief United States District Judge J. Michael Seabright last week. As part of the sentence, Kirk will also pay a $5,000 special assessment under the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015. Kirk will also be required to register as a sex offender. He pled guilty to this crime on November 13, 2019.
US Attorney for the District of Hawai′I Kenji M. Price announced that, according to court documents and information presented in court, in March 2019, Kirk corresponded on a social media application with an individual whom he believed was a woman and arranged a meeting so that he could engage in sexual activity with her three young children, ages 6, 9 and 11 years old. Kirk was later identified and arrested.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. It was prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Morgan Early.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by US Attorney’s Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.
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