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Man who recorded child rapes gets 15-18 years

Salem News - 7/28/2020

Jul. 28--ROWLEY -- She was once an outgoing and trusting little girl, her mother told a judge.

Now, at 11, said her mother, she is cautious and shy around strangers, always vigilant, and always seeking to protect her family.

"She will always have issues trusting any kind of relationship," said the girl's mother, whose name is being withheld to protect her daughter's identity.

And, she will have to live with the fact that images of her abuse "will be forever out in the world."

"She knows there is no way to get those back," said her mother in her written victim-impact statement, read in court by a prosecutor as she listened, on Monday.

The man responsible for that, Darryl Moore, was sentenced Monday to 15 to 18 years in prison, after admitting to repeatedly drugging and raping the girl, recording the rapes and other sexual assaults on his phone and sharing those images with others on Tumblr, Kik, Skout, Snapchat and other social media apps. The sentence will be followed by five years of supervised probation.

Moore, 39, formerly of 10 Boxford Road in Rowley and a former manager at Leslie's Poolmart in Danvers, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of child rape with force, 12 counts of indecent assault and battery on a child, eight counts of posing a child in a state of nudity, and disseminating child pornography during a hearing in Salem Superior Court.

The sentence, imposed by Judge David Deakin, was the result of a plea agreement between prosecutor Kate MacDougall and Moore's attorney, Nicole Bluefort, that will spare the girl and her family from having to go through what all acknowledged would be what the judge called the "difficult and wrenching" ordeal of a trial.

But Deakin also suggested that Moore had no practical choice but to admit guilt, given that he recorded the abuse.

And the guilty plea means that Moore cannot in the future claim "some miscarriage of justice," said the judge.

'Heinous and unforgivable'

The case came to light two years ago, when the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received information that someone using the Tumblr social media app was sharing child pornography, MacDougall told the judge. That information made its way to Massachusetts and then, when the internet address was traced, to the Rowley police.

Rowley police Detective Robert Adams began investigating, learning that Moore was living in a home with young children and that he also spent time at his mother's home in Lynn, where she provided daycare.

He and Danvers police Lt. Robert Sullivan eventually got search warrants that confirmed Moore had been recording and sharing video and images of a girl who was 8 and 9 years old at the time. They also learned Moore was discussing his sexual interest in the girl, related to him by marriage, with other men in online chatrooms.

Police learned that Moore had installed apps on his iPhone that would hide those images, which included 18 videos and dozens of photos.

The videos depicted a range of sexual acts that the girl was forced to perform on Moore. MacDougall described them for the judge during the two-hour hearing, where she called Moore's actions "heinous and unforgivable."

While viewing the videos, police also noticed that the girl appeared to have been drugged. A test of a sample of the girl's hair confirmed that she had been given rohypnol, a known "date rape" drug, or a similar substance during the period of time when the videos were being taken, MacDougall told the judge.

The last video found on the phone was just days before Moore's arrest, said the prosecutor.

Now, she and her family will have to live with the knowledge that those images will be on the internet forever, said MacDougall -- something she was recently reminded of in a case she prosecuted nearly two decades ago, after federal prosecutors recently contacted her office about images of the victim in that case that were recently found online.

The girl has not disclosed everything that happened to her at the hands of Moore, said the prosecutor. Investigators believe that based on the nature of the conversation and interactions in the videos they did find, the abuse had been going on for some period of time.

The girl is now in therapy.

Defendant says he was abused

Bluefort, who represents Moore, told the judge that "he too was a victim. This is not an excuse or in any way an attempt to make light of these offenses, but he too was a victim of abuse," by a man the lawyer identified by his relationship to Moore. "He went through this at a very young age," said Bluefort.

He disclosed the abuse only recently, and, said the lawyer, "has never dealt with it."

She also said that Moore's lack of any other prior criminal history "says to me he does know right from wrong and he's taking full responsibility for everything he has done. He's very sorry for what he has done."

She said that in addition to the court-ordered treatment that will be a requirement of his probation he wants to seek treatment while serving his prison term.

Other conditions of his probation will be a requirement that he allow a probation officer to inspect any electronic devices he owns at any time. He'll also be required to register as a sex offender, and has been ordered to stay away from the victim and her family.

With 740 days of credit for the time he's spent in custody awaiting trial, Moore will be eligible to apply for parole in 13 years.

Deakin told Moore that even after he's out of prison, "You'll have to live with this for the rest of your life."

Courts reporter Julie Manganis can be reached at 978-338-2521, by email at jmanganis@salemnews.com or on Twitter at @SNJulieManganis.

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