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Brooklyn college students fooled into sending nude photographs to an ex-”Jeopardy!” champ trainer have been “ruined” by the catfishing scheme, in response to sufferer statements learn at his sentencing on Wednesday.
Former personal faculty math trainer and TV trivia whiz Winston Nguyen, 38, will spend the following seven years in jail as punishment for his crimes after statements have been learn from his ashamed victims who revealed how he preyed on their innocence and belief.
“You took benefit of me once I was at a psychological low,” one sufferer wrote in an affect assertion learn aloud to the courtroom. “You gave me the validation my younger, impressionable thoughts wanted. You used this to govern me into sending you specific images of myself.”
Nguyen stood in court docket through the continuing carrying a beige jail jumpsuit and a brand-new black eye — which his lawyer, Franklin Rothman, later stated was the product of a jail assault that pressured the disgraced trivia nerd into protecting custody.
“I knew in my head it was mistaken, and I shouldn’t have been doing it,” the sufferer assertion continued. “But it surely was the one love my appears had ever obtained, and I used to be afraid of dropping it.
“Now, each time I have a look at myself, I consider you,” she wrote. “I consider all of the inappropriate stuff you stated about my physique. You despatched these photographs to numerous individuals … I have no idea who is aware of and I really feel like at any second, individuals are going to seek out out the lady who despatched nudes to the trainer was me.”
“The reality is, there’s by no means something you are able to do to repair this. You ruined my life, broke my skill to belief.”
Nguyen, who taught on the swanky Saint Ann’s Faculty in Brooklyn Heights, landed in sizzling water for posing as a teenage boy on Snapchat and collaborating in a whole lot of sexual chats with youngsters as younger as 13-years outdated.
Prosecutors stated Nguyen victimized at the least six youngsters who attended a cadre of 4 Brooklyn personal faculties — together with Saint Ann’s.
The disturbing actions — which authorities stated occurred between October 2022 and Might 2024 — led to a 30-count indictment that compelled Nguyen to give up to the authorities final July.
“I deeply remorse my actions,” Nguyen stated through the listening to. “Particularly to a group that had gone out of its technique to assist me, giving me a second probability. As a trainer, my job was to guard college students, and as a substitute, I acted selfishly.
“I do know my phrases at present could be unsatisfying,” he stated, including that he would discuss to “any households [who] needed to have any conversations for closure.”
“I really need them to know that I’m sorry.”
His apology rang hole to a different unidentified sufferer whose assertion was additionally learn in court docket — with the particular person writing that Nguyen “begged for sexually specific photographs of me to the purpose the place I felt trapped.”
“As a younger little one, with little or no expertise with any boys, I didn’t know what to do,” the sufferer wrote, including Nguyen “wouldn’t take no for a solution.”
“I used to be naive and insecure, you used my adolescence to govern me,” the sufferer stated. “After I came upon, I used to be horrified. You had saved and saved 80 footage of me and despatched them to different kids. I used to be taken benefit of, uncovered and humiliated by you.
“You’ve executed way over make unhealthy selections — [you] deeply harm my pals and my household, and your actions will scar me for the remainder of my life.”
Brooklyn District Legal professional Eric Gonzalez known as Nguyen’s actions a “sickening betrayal of belief by a schoolteacher.”
“As we speak’s sentencing holds him accountable for his actions whereas sparing the younger and susceptible victims from having to relive this emotional abuse in court docket,” Gonzalez stated in an announcement.
“I commend the prosecutors and investigators who introduced this defendant to justice, and the younger survivors who bravely stepped ahead.”
Nguyen — who pleaded responsible earlier this month to at least one depend of use of a kid in a sexual efficiency as a sexually motivated felony and 5 counts of endangering the welfare of a kid — can even register as a intercourse offender and serve 10 years of supervised launch.
He additionally has an eye-popping rap sheet that included stealing greater than $300,000 from an aged couple who employed him as a house well being aide — an act that landed him in jail for 4 months in 2019.
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