NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A man from Charlottesville has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for producing images of child sexual abuse and attempting to meet a minor for sex.
According to court documents, 33-year-old Bryan Wesley Petitt from Keswick, began engaging in sexually explicit messages in 2019 with an undercover agent he thought was a 14-year-old girl.
The case was part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Prosecutors say Petitt then drove from Charlottesville to military housing in Norfolk to have sex with the girl. He was arrested where police later discovered images of child sexual abuse on his phone.
Investigators later learned that Petitt produced one of the images.
On Monday, Petitt was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
