US navy sailor charged with sexual assault on minor boy

A US Navy sailor has been charged with luring a young boy and having sexual relations with him in the barracks, stoking more concerns about the US military's growing issue of sexual assault.

Cryptologic Technician (Maintenance) 3rd Class Chazzman K. Chung, 28, turned himself in to the Connecticut State Police after authorities charged him with risk of injury to a child and enticing a minor by computer, the NavyTimes reported Wednesday.

Investigations about Chung began on December 20, when the boy’s mother called police in nearby Griswold and reported that her son had engaged in sex with an older man, according to the police report.

It took Chung until Valentine’s Day to confess to cultivating a relationship with the boy on an online app. The serviceman retrieved the boy from his home and brought him to his barracks room in Groton.

“Chung admitted to sexually assaulting the victim in his barracks room, then returning him to his Griswold residence shortly thereafter,” the report stated.

The serviceman was released on a $100,000 surety bond and was scheduled to appear at a hearing on April 18 in Norwich Superior Court.

The case comes only days after another Navy sailor was charged with convincing over a dozen young girls online to share explicit images of themselves.

Fireman Apprentice Ethan Knez, 21, used a website and messaging app to instruct a 13-year-old girl and approximately 15 other females under the age of 18 to produce sexually explicit images and videos.

The US military has long struggled to address the widespread sexual assault within its ranks.

In 2017, the US Defense Department announced that more than 20,300 reports of sexual assaults had been filed at American military installations worldwide since 2013.

The issue has gone beyond US borders.

In Japan, for example, documents obtained by the Associated Press show that American military personnel have been involved in more than 1000 sex crimes between 2005 and 2013.

In April 2016, a US Marine deployed at the Okinawa air base was charged with the murder of a 20-year-old Japanese woman. And in 2013, two American sailors admitted to raping a woman in Okinawa a year earlier in a case that sparked huge anti-US sentiments in Japan.

Last year it was reported that a number of US Navy sailors based in Japan are being investigated for allegedly using and selling drugs to local Japanese people.

Numerous anti-US protests have been held in the country, particularly in Okinawa, where some 30,000 US military personnel are stationed. A total of about 50,000 US military personnel are stationed in Japan.