Former church outreach worker Michael Terui was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison for manufacturing child pornography derived from his sexual abuse of young children over a period of 10 years.
Chief U.S. District Court Judge J. Michael Seabright also sentenced the 38-year-old Kauai resident to a lifetime of supervised release following his prison term.
Terui, who will be required to register as a sex offender, pleaded guilty on Dec. 12 to four counts of manufacturing child pornography.
According to prosecutors, Terui used his position in his father’s church to repeatedly sexually abuse children ranging in age from 7 to 13 years old.
As an “outreach resource” worker in the ministry, Terui hosted sleepovers and other gatherings at his home and used video games and movies to groom the children. He also took some of his victims on vacation.
Prosecutors said Terui sexually abused the children, often when they were sleeping or pretending to be asleep, and recorded the acts on hidden and hand-held digital video cameras.
FBI investigators found 77 child pornography video files and 690 pornographic images of children in digital media stored at Terui’s home. Fifteen victims have been identified.
The offenses for which Terui was convicted occurred between December 2008 and November 2017.
Seabright called Terui’s breach of the children’s trust “shocking, abhorrent, callous and devastating.”
In handing down the sentence, Seabright cited Terui’s intentional grooming of the children, his abuse of his position in the church, and the length of time over which the abuse occurred. He also noted that Terui recorded the abuse for future sexual gratification.
During the sentencing hearing, the parent of one of the victims called Terui “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” and accused him of “hiding behind the ministry.”