Manchester Man Sentenced In 2nd Child Sex Case Under 2nd Name

MANCHESTER, CT — A 39-year-old Manchester man convicted a decade ago in a sexual assault case has now been given a federal prison sentence of more than six years in a three-year-old child exploitation case, a leading prosecutor said.

John H. Durham, United States attorney for the District of Connecticut, said that Luqman Gotti, formerly known as Timothy Pennington, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden in Bridgeport to 80 months in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, for exchanging sexually explicit images with a teenage boy.

According to court documents and statements made in court, in June 2017, Gotti and a 13-year-old boy were communicating through the Kik messaging application. After the boy informed Gotti that he was 14 years old, Gotti asked the boy for pictures and sent the boy a sexually explicit image of himself, intending that the boy send Gotti a sexually explicit picture in return, case records show.

The boy then sent sexually explicit pictures of himself to Gotti, Durham said.

According to case records, later in the conversation, Gotti told the boy "I already went to jail over a 14-year-old ... not trying to go through that again.”

Gotti then asked the boy for more sexually explicit pictures and, in response, the boy sent Gotti another sexually explicit photograph and video of himself, Durham said.

In 2000, Gotti was convicted in state court of second-degree sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl. At the time of this offense, Gotti's name was Timothy Pennington. He subsequently changed his name to Luqman Gotti, case records show.

Gotti has been detained since Nov. 14, 2017, when he was arrested on related state charges. On Dec. 20, 2018, he pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of accessing with intent to view child pornography.