Man gets more than 7 years for Internet sex crimes

A North Carolina man has been sentenced to a 90-month prison term in a federal penitentiary in connection with several child porn charges. The man was accused of possessing, receiving and distributing child pornography, according to federal officials in the area. The man will also be required to register as a sex offender because of the Internet sex crimes, and he will remain under indefinite court supervision after his release.

Authorities say that the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation led the investigation, but the North Carolina Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force also contributed. Additional assistance was provided by Burke County law enforcement officers. The case and investigation were brought through Project Safe Childhood, which is a national endeavor designed to protect children from sexual exploitation. Federal and local resources are leveraged through this program to protect youngsters by identifying child porn defendants.

Official reports show that the man, age 27, was subject to one count of receiving the explicit images, one count of distributing them and another count of possession of visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Investigators reportedly discovered a massive collection of child porn at the man’s home, including images on a computer hard drive and others stored within multiple e-mail accounts. Another man was also convicted as a part of that investigation; he has been sentenced to a 25-year term for producing child porn, according to news reports.

In this case, the man who was convicted of producing the child porn images faces a significantly longer sentence than the defendant who will serve only 90 months. However, it is important to remember that federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole. In other words, those convicted of federal crimes likely will have to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences before release is available. That fact should be considered throughout the criminal defense process.

Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office – Western District of North Carolina, “Burke Co. Man Sentenced To More Than Seven Years In Prison On Child Pornography Charges” No author given, May. 02, 2014