Ex-GMU Professor Who Collected 600 Child Porn Files Sentenced: Court

ALEXANDRIA, VA — A former assistant professor at George Mason University and research scientist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory was sentenced in federal court on Wednesday to 25 years in prison for receiving, possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material, as well as coercion and enticement of minors, according to court documents.

In November 2021, Daniel Marc Lofaro, a 40-year-old Fairfax resident, made contact with a 12-year-old minor on a social media app. Identifying himself as being 22 years old, Lofaro described in graphic detail how he would have sex with the victim, according to court documents. He continued enticing and exploiting the victim, even when the child barely responded. He even requested nude images of the child and asked the victim to join him in video chats.

In 2019, Lofaro engaged with a 14-year-old victim via an online dating app, according to court documents. Using various social media and messaging apps, he had voice and video calls with the victim. On multiple occasions, he requested the child send him sexually explicit photos and videos.

At Lofaro's urging, the victim created and sent him a sexually explicit video February 2022, according to court documents. The second victim told investigators that Lofaro had asked for child's address, so that he could visit them.

Eventually, the victim stopped communicating with Lofaro, when he asked the child to send him photos every day, even while the victim was at school, court records say. Lofaro tried to engage the victim for a final time on May 18, 2022, but law enforcement executed a search warrant of his home that morning.

Collecting child sexual abuse material for nearly a decade, Lofaro had amassed 600 images and videos, which he stored on two laptop computers, according to court records. Court records indicate the files on the laptops contained images of the sexual abuse of children, including the rape of a toddler and prepubescent children.

From at least August 2021 and February 2022, Lofaro distributed and received numerous explicit files via social media, court records say. I

In addition to being a member of social media groups dedicated to exchanging files and discussing the sexual abuse of children, Lofaro voiced his interest in sexually abusing children in real life, according to court documents.

On Feb. 5, 2022, Lofaro told another person online about sexually abusing a minor relative while the child was asleep, according to court documents. He added that he was “looking for someone who has a daughter that they are willing to share.”