Rochester Man Sentenced on Child Pornography Charges

ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced that Richard Bailey, 55, of Rochester, New York, who was convicted of distributing and receiving child pornography, was sentenced to 96 months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Charles J. Siragusa.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John J. Field, who handled the case, stated that Bailey used peer-to-peer software to obtain and distribute images of child pornography. The defendant avoided detection by stealing other people’s wireless Internet connection to trade the child pornography. This conduct exposed people who were innocent of any wrongdoing to the risk of having search warrants executed on their homes.

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.

The sentencing is the culmination of an investigation on the part of special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Brian P. Boetig.