Harford County Man Pleads Guilty to Sexually Exploiting a Minor to Produce Child Pornography

BALTIMORE, MD—George Kenneth Hayward, age 72, of Kingsville, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to sexual exploitation of a minor to produce child pornography.

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Bel Air Police Chief Leo Matrangola; Harford County Sheriff L. Jesse Bane; and Sergeant Dave Betz of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, Director of the Harford County Child Advocacy Center.

According to Hayward’s plea agreement, in November 2008, a 5-year-old girl was interviewed at the Harford County Child Advocacy Center. The girl reported that Hayward had sexual contact with her on a number of occasions when she was in Hayward’s care. As a result, a search warrant was executed at his residence on Monica Circle in Kingsville and computers and other items were seized. Images of the 5-year-old girl in various sexually explicit poses, along with other child pornography, were discovered. A review of the images seized from Hayward’s residence revealed a series of minor children, in various stages of dress, taken in and outside the Hayward residence. Specifically, numerous sexually explicit images were taken of the vaginal and anal areas of multiple minor children. All of these constitute child pornography. A number of the child pornography images from Hayward’s computer were known images of child pornography as documented by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Review of the images Hayward produced revealed that he had the children he photographed replicate the sexually explicit images shown on the child pornography he received over the internet.

As part of his plea, Hayward must forfeit assets directly traceable to his offense, any property used to commit or to facilitate the commission of the offense, and all property involved in the offense including, but not limited to, Hayward’s residence.

Hayward faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, followed by supervised release up to life. U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake has scheduled sentencing for April 19, 2009, at 9:15 a.m. Hayward remains in federal custody.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov. Details about Maryland’s program are available at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/md/Safe-Childhood/index.html.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Bonnie S. Greenberg, who is prosecuting the case.