Former US Defense Department Official Jailed for Raping Minor

A former U.S. Department of Defense worker has been sentenced to seven years in prison for having sexual relations with a 13-year-old girl while stationed in Honduras.

William Curry McGrath, 55, admitted in April to having illicit sexual conduct with the minor, adding that he gave her money, gifts and other items of value in exchange for sexual acts.

McGrath was working in Honduras as the Director of the Network Enterprise Center at the Soto Cano Air Base in Comayagua, Honduras. He was stationed there between Dec. 2012 and March 2014, at which time he engaged in the sexual relationship.

The former Defense Department official and Austin resident was sentenced Monday by a federal court in Texas, after being investigated by the FBI's Houston division.

In addition to his sentence, McGrath was ordered to register as a sex offender and spend an additional five years under supervised released when his jail sentence is up.

The charge is part of the U.S. Project Safe Childhood initiative, a national strategy launched to address the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. It was launched the U.S. Department of Justice in 2006.

This is not the first case of U.S. officials or troops committing acts of sexual assault against minors in Latin America.

Earlier this year, the Colombian government and the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrillas released a report documenting at least 54 cases of sexual abuse of minors in the country, committed by U.S. soldiers and military contractors between 2003 and 2007. The case is reportedly being investigated.