A registered sex offender with a long history of sex crimes was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to 23 years in prison and 25 years of supervised release, announced Acting United States Attorney Annette L. Hayes. BLAINE K. NIPP, 37, from Vancouver, Washington, made sexually explicit videos and photographs of a 10-year-old girl who had been given pain medicine for a broken bone. The girl’s parents had no idea NIPP was a registered sex offender when they accepted his offer to care for their daughter while she recovered from the injury. At sentencing U.S. District Judge Robert J. Bryan said, “The defendant’s actions are harmful to others, so it is important to keep him in custody for a long period of time to protect the public from further crimes.”
“This horrifying betrayal of trust deserves a significant prison sentence,” said Acting United States Attorney Annette L. Hayes. “The defendant knew he was prohibited from having contact with children and yet he still did so to satisfy his prurient interests. To molest a child suffering from a serious injury, and under the influence of powerful pain medication, is outrageous. I commend the efforts of the DHS HSI agents and investigators whose careful investigative work uncovered the defendant’s crime and led directly to the sentence that the court imposed today.”
NIPP was convicted of his first sex offense nearly 20 years ago when he fathered a child with a 13-year-old girl. In the years that followed NIPP was convicted of child pornography offenses and of entering and trespassing in an apartment where a 10-year-old was home alone. In August 2013, NIPP volunteered to assist the family of a 10-year-old girl who had suffered a broken leg while riding her bike. The family was acquainted with NIPP, but did not know him well. While alone with the injured child, NIPP took sexually explicit pictures of her while she was asleep on pain medication. NIPP also made explicit videos of his own sexual arousal and the drugged child. The photos were later discovered on NIPP’s electronic devices, after he became the target of an investigation for trading child pornography over the internet. NIPP was arrested in January 2014 and has remained in custody since that time.
“Nipp’s trading of Internet child pornography was a symptom of a larger problem,” said Brad Bench, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Seattle. “As we later learned through our investigation, the defendant used his charm to manipulate his way into situations where he could victimize young girls. With this sentence, children will be safe from Nipp. However, his victims must live the rest of their lives with the scars of his sexual abuse.”
The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Marci Ellsworth.
