St. Croix Man Sentenced To 45 Years For Raping 12 and 16- Year-Olds After Moving In With Their Mother. He Also Recorded Himself Raping The Children.

ST. CROIX — Gilroy D. Elcock, 47, of St. Croix, was sentenced Tuesday for six counts of production of child pornography, two counts of aggravated first-degree rape, and one count of possession of child pornography, United States Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert announced.

Chief Judge Wilma A. Lewis sentenced Elcock to 360 months for the federal production of child pornography and possession of child pornography charges, and to 15 years consecutive for the aggravated first degree rape charges. The aggravated first degree rape counts will be served consecutive to the federal offenses. Judge Lewis also sentenced Elcock to supervised release for life and imposed a $700 special assessment.

Evidence presented at trial established that the defendant met J.S. and J.J.S.’s mother in October 2013. The mother and the defendant started dating and in January 2014, the defendant moved into the residence with the two children and their mother. The defendant started having sexual relations with J.S., then age 16, and J.J.S., then age 12, and used his cell phone to video-record the sexual encounters.

According to the trial testimony, J.J.S. asked the defendant to stop the sexual encounters, but he continued. The children’s mother spoke to J.J.S., after one of Elcock’s friends told her about a sex video of one of her daughters and Elcock. J.J.S. showed her mother Facebook messages between her and the defendant. The messages were sexual in nature and when the mother saw the messages, she called the police. The police spoke to the defendant, who denied having sexual contact with the minors and recording those encounters. The defendant gave the police consent to search the phone in 2014, but no videos were recovered. A second search in 2016 yielded seven videos depicting the defendant engaged in sexual acts with J.S. and J.J.S. The videos had been hidden, using an encryption App.

This case was investigated by the Virgin Islands Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Rhonda Williams-Henry.