Norwich man who repeatedly raped, recorded child gets 23-year sentence
A 34-year-old Norwich man who recorded his repeated rapes of a child was sentenced on Monday to 23 years in prison by a federal judge, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Meyer also ordered Travis Williams to serve five years of supervised release on one count each of production of child pornography and distribution of child pornography.
Citing court documents and statements, U.S. Department of Justice officials said Williams on more than 100 occasions engaged in sexual acts with a child who was approximately 9 years old at the time.
In July 2019, Williams used his iPhone to photograph himself sexually abusing the child before sending the photographs to a woman via text message, court documents state. On July 27, 2019, Williams filmed 10 videos depicting him sexually abusing the child.
Investigators recovered numerous text messages between Williams and the woman, authorities said. In certain text messages, Williams told the woman that he wanted to engage in sexual acts with her while the child watched and also wanted the child to take part.
Williams has been detained since his arrest on related state charges on August 30, 2019. He pleaded guilty to the federal charges in October.
Williams still faces several counts of sexual assault and other charges in New London Superior Court related to the federal case. He is charged with two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a victim younger than 13; illegal possession of child pornography; two counts of illegal sexual contact with victim; and employing a minor in an obscene performance, according to the state's judicial website.
The state charges list an offense date of July 27, 2019 - the same date Williams admitted to recording his sexual assault of the child.
Williams has pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree sexual assault and one count of illegal possession of child pornography and not guilty to the remaining state charges, according to the state’s judicial website.
He is due to appear next in New London Superior Court on Feb. 9.
According to a plea agreement filed in the federal case, Williams, a Taftville resident, was in Florida from July 20-22 in 2019 with the victim. On two occasions, Williams forced the child to engage in sexually explicit conduct. Williams later sent the videos to the adult woman, the document states.
An examination of Williams’ phone by police located several videos showing the child performing a sexual act on Williams at his Norwich residence. Police said Williams admitted to sexually assaulting the child at least 100 times over the course of a year, sometimes several times a week.
Prosecutors said Williams was the child's care-giver/custodian when the videos were recorded.
Though he faced a maximum total of 50 years in prison on both charges at his sentencing on Monday - and at least 20 years under minimum sentencing guidelines - the government previously agreed it would not seek a sentence longer than 30 years, the maximum amount of prison time Williams faces on the charge of producing child pornography.
Williams will also request his federal sentence runs concurrently with any sentence ordered in New London Superior Court, the plea agreement states.
The case was investigated by FBI and Norwich and state police. The prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.justice.gov/psc.
John Penney can be reached at jpenney@norwichbulletin.com or at (860) 857-6965
This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Norwich man who repeatedly raped, recorded child gets 23-year sentence
