CONCORD, NH—Keith Burns, 41, of Merrimack, pled guilty in United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire to one count of attempted receipt of child pornography, announced United States Attorney John P. Kacavas.

The investigation began in March of last year when investigators in Jackson County, Oregon, received reports of a man using facebook to solicit a 13-year-old girl to produce pornographic images of herself. The parents of the minor child brought it to the attention of local authorities, who contacted the FBI. A subsequent investigation led to the identification and arrest of Keith Burns of Merrimack.

Burns was previously convicted of sexually assaulting a minor and is required by New Hampshire law to register with the state’s sex offender registry list. He is facing a minimum term of 15 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31, 2014.

The charge was the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Merrimack Police Department, and the Jackson County, Oregon Sherriff’s Department and is being prosecuted under Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the 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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Helen White Fitzgibbon.