US Sailor Confesses to Sending Rape Threats to Fellow Sailors

A U.S. Navy sailor has confessed to making violent sexual threats and sending unsolicited photos of his genitalia to more than a dozen women, among them a naval officer and several active duty Navy sailors, according to newly filed court records. 

Justin Leung, an electrician's mate second class assigned to the aircraft carrier U.S.S Eisenhower, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to two of five felony counts after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors. Leung admitted to cyberstalking and making threats across state lines to kidnap or injure an unnamed individual. The court filing included detailed descriptions of messages Leung had allegedly sent over the app Snapchat, including threats and images of himself to some 17 women, many who were serving in the Navy. In one message, he threatened to “gang rape” a woman identified only as “Victim 4,” and to do so “with 10 other men over the course of 24 hours.” 

Leung is scheduled to be sentenced in December. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors said they would recommend to the federal judge a sentence of 27 months. 

Contacted by The Messenger on Thursday, Brian Pristera, Leung’s attorney said: “Mr. Leung is a young Sailor, a good person, with an otherwise unblemished Naval record, that made a mistake and accepts full responsibility for his actions.” 

The Department of Justice declined to comment on the case. The Navy did not return a request for comment. 

Leung, a native of Ohio, joined the Navy in September 2018 and served on the Eisenhower from April 2019 to January 2023, according to biographical information released by the U.S. Navy. 

On Tuesday, The Messenger reported on a spike in sexual harassment reports on U.S. aircraft carriers, the Eisenhower among them. While the survey occurred roughly five months before Leung’s threats of sexual violence, 49 percent of women on the ship queried in 2022 reported sexually harassing behaviors. 

According to the court filing, Leung’s online harassment and threats occurred over at least a three-month period last summer, until he was notified in early November 2022 that he was under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In April, the U.S. government indicted Leung on a range of federal charges related to his threats against fellow sailors. 

According to a statement of facts filed in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia, in one exchange Leung posed as a military officer over a burner account on Snapchat and threatened an active duty naval officer who had just joined the service. He told the woman he would welcome her to the U.S. Navy by raping her in his stateroom on an unnamed naval vessel, and that “high ranking Naval officers” would join him in “gang raping” her. 

Leung also claimed he would use the public broadcasting system on the ship, known as the 1MC, to humiliate her publicly as he and the others attacked her.

According to the court records, Leung also said he would parade the officer publicly and allow “homeless dudes” to rape her. He also threatened to find and rape her mother. 

Leung made widespread use of burner cell phones and social media accounts. Using one burner phone, Leung sent a photo of his penis to a woman identified as “Victim 2” and an “active duty Navy Sailor.” After communicating his sexual desires, he said he had “seen her walking on the Navy base at specific times,” per the court filing. 

The court filing also said Leung created a fake instagram account and followed Victim 2 and one of her relatives. He then set up a fake dating profile on Hily, an online dating app, using Victim 2’s personal information and published her Snapchat username, according to the filings. As a result, the woman received multiple messages from strangers. 

Leung later used his real Snapchat account to contact Victim 2 and lied about having found her username through the fake dating profile on Hily. After the woman uncovered his ruse, Leung became angry and told her, “you’re going to regret this.” 

“Victim 2 was terrified because of LEUNG’s course of conduct and had to take protective measures as a direct result,” read the court filing. 

Leung threatened to rape a third victim and then told a fourth that he had been stalking her “for awhile now,” and that he and 10 of his friends would rape her in order to “turn [her] into a real woman.” Through his burner account on Snapchat, he told a fifth victim he would rape her as well. Leung had a personal relationship with the fourth victim who was not named in the court filing and the fifth victim served on the Eisenhower with him. 

The court filing also detailed instances in which Leung sent “photographs of his penis through his burner Snapchat account to 12 other women.” These women were a mix of active duty U.S. Navy sailors and civilians. Among them, the court papers said, “one woman had previously turned down Leung romantic advances.” 

Seamus Hughes is an independent contributor to The Messenger.