Seerden was arrested on April 3 in San Diego, where he was stationed with SEAL Team 1. He is scheduled to be arraigned on May 10.
The molestation was discovered during an investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service into an unrelated rape case. Seerden was accused by a woman of raping her in a Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story hotel room in January, though he is not currently facing charges in that case.
However, when NCIS agents obtained authorization to search Seerden’s iPhone, they discovered that on February 3, the sailor had searched for dozens of images of prepubescent girls and boys engaging in sex acts, including bondage, Military.com reports. At least one of the images on his phone involved a naked child engaging with an aroused dog.
Four videos and a photograph taken on the phone in January showed a man, believed to be Seerden, mastubating next to a sleeping girl and touching her in sexual ways. The man’s face was not visible in the images, but he was wearing the same shirt that Seerden was wearing in photos of him reading a book to the child earlier in the evening.
Last month, another Navy sailor was sentenced to 30 years in prison for producing child pornography.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Jordan Lee Adams, 26, pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography after he was found to have filmed himself having sex with at least four minors from 2009 through 2013.
Adams was charged and sentenced in a civilian court in Norfolk, Virginia.
An investigation into Adams was launched in 2014 by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service after another sailor accused him of sexually assaulting her. When Adams gave the NCIS agents permission to search his laptop, the investigators found 998 images and videos of suspected or known child pornography, the Virginian Pilot reported.
In addition to filming his sex with children, Adams shared photos to social media accounts that are used by child pornographers. This resulted in another pedophile contacting one of the girls in March 2015, asking her for additional photos. The person told her that if she did not comply with his request that he would spread the photos that he had received from Adams.
