A Virginia man was sentenced today to 130 months in prison followed by 20 years of supervised release for possessing images of child sexual abuse and the transfer of obscene material to minors.
According to court documents, in or around 2005, Alan Tabish, 37, Vienna, met a 15-year-old victim over AOL Instant Messenger. After she had identified herself as a minor online, Tabish picked her up from her parents’ home and brought her to his home in Fairfax, where he provided her with alcohol and showed her pornography. Tabish then brought her to the basement of his home, where he recorded videos and images of himself engaging in sexually explicit conduct with her. The victim reported the crime in 2019.
Based on the information she provided, law enforcement identified Tabish and executed a warrant to search his home in Vienna. During the search, law enforcement found a hard drive containing nine images and two videos depicting Tabish engaging in sexual activity with the minor when she was 15 years old, including at least one video in which the victim appears to be unsteady and is struggling to keep her eyes open. Additionally, law enforcement recovered from the hard drive approximately 84 other online chats with individuals purporting to be minors, including one chat with a self-identified 14-year-old in which Tabish pressed her to discuss sexually explicit and personal topics and sent her sexually explicit images of himself, and another chat with a self-identified 13-year-old in which Tabish asked her about her sexual history and also sent her sexually explicit images of himself.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; James A. Dawson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office Criminal Division; and Colonel Edwin C. Roessler Jr., Fairfax County Chief of Police, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Rossie D. Alston, Jr.
This investigation was conducted by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force which is composed of FBI Agents along with Detectives from Northern Virginia law enforcement agencies and the Washington Metropolitan Police Department. The task force is charged with identifying, investigating and disrupting child predators and those engaged in Human Trafficking.
Special Assistant U.S. Attorney William G. Clayman prosecuted the case with assistance from former Assistant U.S. Attorney Whitney Dougherty Russell.