Man convicted of sexual abuse of toddlers: ‘I did what I did’

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(Photo by J. Conrad Williams Jr./Newsday RM via Getty Images)

BIG SPRING, Texas – A 25-year-old man from Big Spring, Texas who hid photos of himself sexually abusing preschoolers in what appeared to be a calculator app on his phone has been sentenced to 60 years in prison.

According to court documents, the investigation began when Barreto’s ex-girlfriend alerted police that she had seen Internet searches for child pornography on his phone. She told officers that when she confronted him, Barreto admitted to using cryptocurrency to purchase child sexual abuse images and said “age didn’t matter” to him.

Forensic investigators searched the phone and found hundreds of photos and at least 30 videos of adult men sexually abusing children, including toddlers. They also found a storage application disguised as a calculator, in which Barreto hid videos of himself sexually abusing 4- and 5-year-old girls.

“I mean, I can’t deny it,” he said when confronted by officers. “I did what I did.”

“My little girl, she seems to have been more withdrawn and more sensitive … she has been having nightmares,” the mother of one victim said in a statement read into the record at the sentencing. “The actions he did are of a monster, and I believe he is one in the truest form.”

Humberto Barreto Jr. was indicted in January and found guilty in June of two counts of producing child pornography. He was sentenced last Thursday by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix to 30 years on each charge, to run consecutively for a total of 60 years, and was ordered to register as a sex offender.