The courthouse at Rose Barracks in Vilseck, Germany. A U.S. Army specialist from the 7th Army Training Command in Hohenfels pleaded guilty Jan. 9, 2025, to more than two dozen counts of various child sex crime charges. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)
VILSECK, Germany — A U.S. soldier who admitted to distributing child pornography and attempting to arrange the rape of a young girl was sentenced to nine years in prison during a two-day hearing at Rose Barracks that ended Thursday.
Spc. Adam Roof, 33, pleaded guilty to more than two dozen related counts and also received a reduction in pay grade to E-1.
Prosecutors said Roof, who was a weapons maintainer at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, solicited a woman so that he could molest her 8-year-old daughter. The woman he connected with, via the Kik chat app, was an undercover federal agent.
Roof sought to start a family with the woman so he could molest their children, and he asked her to rape her daughter in preparation for his own abuse, prosecutor Maj. Zachary Ray said Thursday. After Roof’s phone was seized, evidence was recovered of additional crimes going back to 2021.
“He asked a mother to violate a child,” Ray said before sentencing. “His dark desires are fully realized. The longer he is in jail, the longer he will be prevented from taking the next step.”
Roof pleaded guilty to 32 counts of viewing child pornography, distributing child pornography, indecent language, and solicitation of rape and sexual assault of a child. One count was dropped under the plea agreement.
The case against Roof, a New York resident, began in May 2023 when he started chatting with someone posing as a 28-year-old named Anna, judge Lt. Col. Tom Hynes said Wednesday while discussing the plea agreement.
Roof used the app to chat with others about incest, child sexual abuse and bestiality. He admitted to watching pornography involving children as young as 3 years old and shared the content with others.
Roof, who was assigned to 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, said during the hearing that alcohol and the isolation of Hohenfels had led him to break the law.
“I knew it was wrong but I continued,” Roof told the court Thursday. “It’s not who I am.”
Roof had been in pretrial detention since Nov. 16 and was credited with 54 days of time served.
After his release from prison, he will be required to register as a sex offender. Roof said during sentencing that he plans to seek behavioral health treatment while incarcerated.
