A former schoolteacher from Hawaii has been sentenced to 17.5 years in prison for the creation and distribution of child sexual abuse images he produced during his own rape of a 13-year-old boy. Alden Bunag, 35, had raped the child in his classroom and filmed it before sending it to other pedophiles to consume.
As previously reported by Reduxx, Bunag was first arrested in June of 2022 following an investigation into a pedophile in a different state. The FBI had received a tip about a schoolteacher in Philadelphia who had been sharing child sexual abuse material on the internet, and raided his home. Upon a forensic examination of his electronic devices, agents discovered over 3,300 messages that had been exchanged with Bunag, who was a teacher at Pearl City High School in Oahu at the time.
According to the complaint, written by special agent Gabriel Keown, a number of the messages the Philadelphia teacher received from Bunag included explicit content of children. Among the sickening content shared by Bunag was a video of a young boy being anally raped, slapped, and suffocated, and another featuring a boy being forced to perform oral sex on an adult man.
Other media sent by Bunag included non-explicit photos of his own students and Japanese animation.
In some of the conversations, Bunag boasted of sexually abusing a 13-year-old student of his, explaining that he would rape the child during school lunch breaks.
While the charges against Bunag were disturbing on their own, his arrest quickly attracted attention after some users found his X (formerly Twitter) account. There, Bunag often expressed his support for gender ideology and other LGBT topics, and mentioned discussing them with his students.
Just weeks before his arrest, Bunag attacked JK Rowling for her role in perpetuating “bigotry” against LGBTQ people.
It began after Rowling had uploaded a screenshot of an abusive comment she had received in response to a post she’d made featuring a Tavistock whistleblower expressing concerns about the transitioning of vulnerable minors.
Bunag began responding to one of the commenters in Rowling’s replies, and the two exchanged charged messages for a few days. Bunag called Rowling a “hateful TERF,” and suggested she was a fascist for “propping up anti-trans bigots and businesses.”
In a post that has now been deleted, Bunag wrote: “Why is spewing hate towards a hateful TERF like Rowling not okay but not what Rowling is doing? It’s called [being] intolerant of intolerance. Hating due to one’s actions is NOT the same as hating due to one’s identity.”
Bunag denounced legislation intended to prevent minors from accessing hormones or “gender affirming” surgeries, writing: “In Texas and Idaho they’re trying to pass bills that would prosecute parents to give gender affirming care to their kids and in Florida, it effectively bans ANY discussion of LGTBQ topics.”
The debate culminated in Bunag accusing the other user of being a pedophile for having reservations about teaching children about issues surrounding sexuality and gender identity in schools.
Bunag was arrested at Pearl City High School after FBI agents in Honolulu were made aware of the case that had been established against him. During an interview, he admitted to sexually abusing the minor student, and also admitted to sending video of the acts to others. Bunag entered a guilty plea last May, and has been in custody awaiting sentencing ever since.
On January 11, Bunag’s attorneys filed a sentencing memorandum requesting 180 months – or 15 years – in prison, which was the minimum possible sentence for the charges he pleaded guilty to. In the memorandum, the attorneys argued that Bunag’s crime had been committed as a result of the trauma he had faced due to his repressed homosexuality.
“Denied a normal outlet for sexual exploration during his early pubescent years, he viewed his own homosexual desires as wrong, hindering his proper maturation,” the memorandum reads, including photos of Bunag and his family. “Unfortunately, he never received any help to process this significant trauma. It is with that backdrop that Mr. Bunag committed this offense.”
The memorandum also states that Bunag has had exemplary behavior while in prison, and had been helping other inmates perform in the correctional center’s talent show. A number of letters of reference are also included from friends, family, and members of Bunag’s church where he was allegedly the Children Worship Service Officer.
On January 16, Bunag was sentenced to 17.5 years in federal prison. He will also have to register as a sex offender for life upon his release, and pay $30,000 in restitution to his victims.
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