A 52-year-old Westchester County man was sentenced to up to six years in prison after pleading guilty to a dozen charges related to a 2019 child sex abuse case in Port Chester, prosecutors said Friday.
John Passaretti, of Pleasantville, admitted taking sexually explicit photos of a young child, the daughter of an acquaintance, at the family's home. He used his familiarity with the family to create a scenario in which he would be alone for several moments with the child he abused. A motion-triggered security camera captured the abuse on video, prosecutors said.
In a victim impact statement read at sentencing, the victim's mother said her children have been traumatized by the experience.
“My children were trusting and friendly, fearless to explore but now, instead I witness fear upon my children’s faces every time the [door]bell rings,” she said.
The victim's father spoke of his anxiety about the many traumatizing impacts of the abuse on his daughter: "Imagine how this must feel when something of this magnitude happens in your own home while you are there."
Passaretti will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release. He had been held at the Westchester County Jail since his arrest and pleaded guilty to charges of using a child in a sexual performance, promoting an obscene performance by a child, promoting a sexual performance by a child and possessing both types of performances, as well as first-degree sexual abuse.
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The charges amount to a total of 11 counts, every one of them felonies.
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"This was a terrible crime that traumatized a young child and had a devastating impact on the entire family,” Westchester District Attorney Miriam Rocah said in a statement. "Crimes against children are every parent’s nightmare and this case is a perfect example of how perpetrators of child sex abuse often manipulate relationships of trust. We must do all we can in law enforcement to prevent these and hold perpetrators accountable."