NEW HAVEN — A 29-year-old Derby resident was sentenced to a year in federal prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to one count of possessing child pornography.
The government alleged Michael Vadakin used the Kik Messenger app on his cell phone to view, discuss, and share pornographic images and videos featuring children. Prosecutors further alleged he had pornographic images with children on his tablet.
He was arrested Dec. 13, 2018. The prison sentence was part of a plea agreement.
After he gets out of prison, Vadakin will be on federal probation for five years. He’ll be on home confinement for the first four months of probation.
Vadakin was arrested after an undercover officer gained access to a chat room to which Vadakin was connected. Law enforcement was able to trace child pornography posted in the chat app to Vadakin, then raided his house using a search warrant.
“When law enforcement arrived and began conducting the search, they found Mr. Vadakin’s phone was on, the Kik app was open, and the chat room being accessed at the time was titled “Anything Goes’,” according to the government’s sentencing memo. The first post in the message board referenced a sex act involving a baby.
In his first contact with law enforcement, prosecutors allege Vadakin readily admitted to seeing and reposting child pornography. Some of the illegal images featured toddlers.
In an attempt to cover his tracks, Vadakin allegedly deleted the app several times and signed up under new names.
In a sentencing memo submitted by Tracy Hayes, Vadakin’s lawyer, the Derby man admitted his crime and accepted responsibility. Vadakin is remorseful and is ready to get treatment to change his ways, according to the defense attorney’s sentencing memo.
An evaluation of Vadakin’s mental state revealed that he was miserable, depressed, immature, and isolated, and looked at the chatrooms as a path toward social acceptance.
“He detests his abhorrent criminal behavior during a very ‘dark time’ in his life,” according to Hayes.
Vadakin’s background includes trouble in school at a young age and “some suggestion of a past history of sexual abuse” by one of his mother’s former boyfriends. The family lived in Florida for about a decade before returning to Connecticut when Vadakin was 17. Then they lived in a homeless shelter for two months.
In a court transcript filed Jan. 2, 2019, prosecutors also alleged that Vadakin told law enforcement he had molested two children in a shelter some ten years prior. He was not charged and his defense attorney questioned whether the information he allegedly provided was accurate. Vadakin allegedly recanted the info about the molestations, saying he was just telling police what he thought they wanted to hear during an initial interview.
Federal prosectors also noted that Vadakin, while his case worked its way through the court system, found employment at a Halloween shop, where he was near kids and had access to the Internet.
“Mr. Vadakin’s actions have not demonstrated he can commit, or has committed, to not pushing the limits and seeing how much he can get away with,” according to a memo submitted to the court by U.S. Attorney John Durham and Assistant U.S. Attorney Anastasia King.
The investigation was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with assistance from the Derby Police Department.
To report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com.
