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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Brazen Sex Offender|Gets 29½ Years

SAN DIEGO (CN) - A brazen child pornographer who talked children's parents into signing model releases was sentenced Monday to 29½ years in prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

After serving his time, Michael Royce Galyen, 51, of Oceanside, will have to register as a sex offender and submit to supervision for 15 years.

A police task force searched Gaylen's home, with a warrant, on March 2, 2010, after getting a tip from MySpace that he had uploaded child pornography, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in its statement.

Galyen fled and was arrested in Kneutcky in November 2010.

He pleaded guilty on April 19, 2011 to producing child pronography, prosecutors said.

Specifically, he admitted to using a hidden camera to secretly record himself engaging in a sex act with a 12-year-old boy," prosecutors said in the statement. "In addition, Galyen administered a password-protected website in which he and other pedophiles traded images of child pornography. The RCFL [Regional Criminal Forensics Laboratory] determined that the computer media seized from Galyen's apartment contained thousands of images of child pornography, including numerous images of children between 6 and 12 years old engaging in sex acts.

"According to court documents, Galyen surrounded himself with children under 14 years-old by claiming to be a professional surfing and skateboarding photographer, and he persuaded numerous parents to sign model release forms for their children.

"As noted during (the Monday) hearing, Galyen has a history of committing sex offenses against children. On February 24, 1994, he was convicted of Criminal Sexual Abuse in violation of Illinois law for pressing a vibrating object against the groin of a 9-year-old girl. On December 21, 1994, Galyen was convicted of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Assault in violation of Illinois law for committing an act of sexual penetration on a girl under the age of 13 years old. At the time of his arrest in this case, Galyen was a registered sex offender."

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