By PAUL ANDERSON
SANTA ANA — A 65-year-old Hemet man was sentenced Friday to 15 years and eight months in federal prison for collecting thousands of images and videos of child pornography and manipulating a 12-year-old girl into sending him explicit photos of herself and a 5-year-old girl.
John Mathew Piecuch pleaded guilty July 26 to a count of production of child pornography. Piecuch has been in custody since August 2021.
U.S. District Judge John W. Holcomb said the sentencing guidelines range was 262 to 327 months, but he honored terms of a plea deal, noting the defendant had shown remorse and suffered a troubling childhood.
“I know it can’t help anything, but I want you to know I am so sorry about what I have done,” Piecuch told Holcomb. “I know it’s horrible. I’m ashamed of myself. If there was anything I could do for the victims I would do it.”
Piecuch said his wife was also victimized by his crimes.
“I want to be there to help her, but I can’t,” he said. “This is the biggest mistake of my life and I’ve thrown away my life.”
Piecuch said his wife couldn’t attend the sentencing because she had to “work so she can hang onto the house,” he said.
Piecuch’s attorney, Diane Bass, told City News Service after the hearing that her client’s mother abandoned him when he was 2 years old, and his father was killed in a car crash when Piecuch was 9.
“He loved his father. He was his hero,” she said.
Piecuch was shuffled among relatives after that, Bass said.
Holcomb noted the defendant’s age and health problems and “lack of youthful guidance” in honoring the plea deal.
“To your credit you admit the crime you committed is horrific,” Holcomb told Piecuch. “But a significant sentence is required.”
He said the 188 months was a significant enough punishment.
“I hope there will come a day when you can be released from custody and you’re able to return to your wife and won’t be back here,” Holcomb said.
Piecuch will be required to register as a sex offender and be on supervised release for life.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sonah Lee told Holcomb that the crimes have “torn apart (the victims’) family. I don’t know if they’ve overcome that or will ever be able to overcome that.”
Piecuch spent several years collecting 285,016 child pornographic images and 1,301 videos, Lee said.
Some of the images included toddlers, with some involving bondage, Holcomb said.
Piecuch met a 12-year-old girl from Carroll County, Maryland, through Roblox, an online gaming platform, and masqueraded as a 13-year-old boy.
In January 2021, they began texting, and he convinced her to send him sexually explicit images of herself, prosecutors said. Then he got her to take explicit photographs of a 5-year-old girl she was related to and send them to the defendant, prosecutors said.
When the 12-year-old’s mother saw some of the text messages, she alerted the authorities.
