Former East Hartford man gets almost 23 years for recording molestation
Feb. 8—A judge on Wednesday sentenced former East Hartford resident Saeed Mustapha Moussa to almost 23 years in federal prison for making pornographic videos of himself sexually assaulting a girl when she was 6 to 8 years old.
PORNOGRAPHY SENTENCE
DEFENDANT: Saeed Mustapha Moussa, 33, formerly of Columbus Circle in East Hartford
GUILTY PLEA: Producing child pornography
SENTENCE: 22 years and 10 months in federal prison; $5,000 restitution
Federal sentencing guidelines recommended that Moussa, 33, who formerly lived in the Veteran Terrace complex on Columbus Circle and ran a food-distribution business, receive the 30-year maximum sentence for producing child pornography.
But Judge Sarah A.L. Merriam, who has been elevated to the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals but is still finishing some cases in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, said there was no indication that Moussa ever distributed the images he produced.
Distribution is considered one of the major harms of producing child pornography because it leaves victims knowing that images of their abuse may circulate essentially forever.
The judge said her goal was to impose an "effective sentence" of 25 years. She made the actual sentence two years and two months shorter to reflect time Moussa has spent or will spend in custody that won't be credited against the sentence.
Still pending against Moussa is a Hartford Superior Court case in which he is charged with four counts of first-degree sexual assault and other crimes for the same conduct at issue in the federal case.
The judge said Moussa's sentence in the state case is expected to run concurrent to the federal sentence. She ordered the sentence she imposed to run concurrent to any other sentence over which she has authority.
The girl's father, who participated in Wednesday's hearing via teleconference, said, "I need to talk because this guy has hurt our family. We took this guy as our friend, our brother."
Referring to his daughter, the man said Moussa "messed this girl up."
When Moussa is released from prison, he is expected to be deported to his native Ghana.
When he was growing up in Ghana, Moussa's family was marred by instability including the separation his parents when he was 6, Assistant Federal Defender Charles F. Willson wrote in his sentencing memorandum.
The defense lawyer emphasized the vastly different attitudes toward sexual contact between adults and children in Ghana and the United States. By American standards, Moussa was sexually abused, Willson told the judge Wednesday.
He gave extensive attention to a practice known as Trokosi in which a child as young as 5, typically a girl, is given to a shrine to compensate for a real or perceived crime committed by a family member.
"The more modern practice of Trokosi involves using young girls to do a priest's housekeeping and to share his bed," the defense lawyer wrote, citing scholarly articles.
"The Ghanian Government outlawed forced labor and slavery in 1998, but the Trokosi practice continued thereafter," he wrote.
Willson added in a supplemental sentencing memo filed last month that conversations with Moussa, his mother, and sister belatedly revealed "that he has older siblings who have been given away pursuant to trokosi."
The judge said, however, "None of that excuses the conduct here."
The defense lawyer also cited reports that Moussa was assaulted twice last May in state jails, including an incident that led to hospital treatment for a broken bone in his face. The judge expressed the hope and expectation that he will be less at risk in federal custody.
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