PHILADELPHIA, PA — United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero announced that Craig Alex Levin, 67, of King of Prussia was sentenced Thursday to 35 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release by United States District Court Judge Harvey Bartle, III for traveling to the Philippines to engage in sex with children as young as 12 years old.
According to court documents, between 2016 and 2019, Levin was a retired special education teacher who traveled to the Philippines nine times, each time for the purpose of engaging in sex with disadvantaged minors who, by Levin’s own words, were hungry or needed money for medicine for family members. In May 2019, the Philippines National Police arrested Levin as he was about to enter the elevator at his hotel with a 15-year-old girl. Upon search of his hotel room, police located several notebooks containing the names and ages of hundreds of girls, scored on a rating system of 1 to 10 in five categories: Face, Body, Sex, Personality, and Age. Only girls under the age of 18 received a top score of 10. There were multiple children as young as 12 listed in the notebooks.
“At the time of Levin’s arrest in the Philippines, he was escorting a 15-year-old girl to his hotel room. Levin’s sentencing effectively takes a dangerous predator who targeted vulnerable children in a foreign country off the streets indefinitely,” said U.S. Attorney Romero. “No matter their role in society or where they prey on children, child sex offenders must be held accountable.”
“This predator with a passport traveled halfway around the world, multiple times a year, solely to sexually abuse children,” said Jacqueline Maguire, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division. “He took eager advantage of situations of extreme poverty to gain access to the young girls he victimized, apparently thinking he’d just continue to fly under the radar. This lengthy sentence proves him wrong, and should send a message to anyone else sexually exploiting children: whether you commit your crimes here at home or travel to do so abroad, the FBI will investigate, hold you accountable, and ensure your destination is federal prison.”
The case was investigated by the FBI and Philippine National Police and Women and Children Protection Center – Visayas Field Unit. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michelle Rotella and Trial Attorney Austin M. Berry of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.
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