Former Craven County School Teacher Sentenced for Child Pornography Charge

RALEIGH, NC—United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that in federal court yesterday, Matthew Metcalf, 41, of New Bern, North Carolina, was sentenced to 210 months’ imprisonment, followed by a lifetime term of supervised release. Metcalf had pled guilty on April 16, 2012, to one count of producing child pornography over the Internet, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2251.

Separate investigations led both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) to the same IP address, which belonged to Metcalf, a former elementary school teacher in Craven County. The SBI’s lead was based on information sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which had learned that an individual using the Internet moniker “14yoVideoMaster” had uploaded images of apparent child pornography to YouTube. Investigators later identified 14YoVideoMaster as Metcalf. Separately, the FBI had developed a lead to another state in which another individual had been identified as uploading child pornography to YouTube. Further investigation revealed that this individual was a child who Metcalf, posing as a 14-year-old boy, named “Cody” and, using the 14yoVideoMaster ID, had encouraged to create and upload videos depicting the child engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Based upon this information, the SBI and FBI obtained and executed a search warrant at Metcalf’s residence on April 28, 2011. At the time of that search, Metcalf admitted to using the 14yoVideoMaster identity and to encouraging children to produce sexual images of themselves online. Metcalf further acknowledged having amassed a significant collection of child pornography unrelated to that he had sought to create.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the 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, PSC marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about PSC, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/resources.html and click on the tab “Resources.”

Investigation of the case was conducted by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Craven County District Attorney’s Office, and the United States Attorney’s Offices in the Eastern District of North Carolina and the Western District of Pennsylvania. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Exum handled the case for the government.