Kidnapper of 2 girls on walking street to film pornographic clip gets 9 years in prison
The court sentenced defendant Pham Huynh Nhat Vi to 9 years in prison for kidnapping 2 girls and filming a pornographic clip to send to a man abroad.
At noon on August 7, after half a day of trial and deliberation, the Family and Juvenile Court (HCMC People's Court) sentencedaccusedPham Huynh Nhat Vi (21 years old, residing in Tien Giang province) was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for "Using a person under 16 years old for pornographic purposes" and 5.5 years in prison for "Seizing a person under 16 years old". The total sentence is 9 years in prison.
At the same time, the court ordered the defendant to compensate the victim 80 million VND.
At 8:30, Vi was escorted to court by the police. Seeing his relatives, the defendant burst into tears. The trial was held in private.
In court, Vi disagreed with the content of the indictment. The defendant stated that he only took the two children to take care of, not for the purpose of filming pornographic clips.
The indictment determined that around October 2023, through a dating app, Vi had a romantic relationship with a man named Richard (unknown background). The two met at a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.
In March 2024, Richard returned to Vietnam and texted Vi asking her to find girls aged 6-12 to film pornographic clips and send them to him. This man said he would give her money and promised to return to Vietnam to marry Vi.
On the evening of April 3, Vi went to Dong Khoi Street to meet M. and LHTL (3 years old, M.'s younger brother) sitting on the sidewalk and gave the two children 10,000 VND. Then, Vi lured the two children to eat and took a picture to send to Richard, who chose the 6-year-old. Because L. was still young and had no one to look after her, Vi took L. along. Richard texted Vi to inform her that he had rented an apartment in Saigon Pearl apartment building (Ward 22, Binh Thanh District).
Investigators determined that from April 3-7, Vi filmed 12 pornographic clips to send to Richard.
On April 8, the Criminal Police Department of Ho Chi Minh City Police, District 1 Police and Binh Thanh District Police raided the apartment building and successfully rescued the two children. Working with the police, Vi admitted to all of her crimes.
As for Richard, the investigation results determined that when the incident occurred, this man was in the US and directed Vi via Zalo to commit the crime. Ho Chi Minh City Police sent a document to the Supreme People's Procuracy requesting judicial assistance with the United States Department of Justice to verify and investigate.
