White Oak Man Sentenced for Child Pornography Charge

GREENVILLE—United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that in federal court today Senior United States District Judge Malcolm J. Howard sentenced Andrew Franklin Hood, 53, of White Oak, North Carolina, to 121 months’ imprisonment, followed by a life-term of supervised release. The court also imposed restitution of $5,000.

A federal grand jury returned a criminal indictment on September 7, 2011. On November 7, 2011, Hood pled guilty to receipt of child pornography.

According to the investigation, law enforcement became aware of an Internet address that was possessing images of child pornography. It was determined that from October 25, 2010 to February 4, 2011, a peer-to-peer file sharing network was being utilized to obtain the child pornography. The address was traced to Hood, and on February 15, 2011, a search warrant was executed at his residence. During the search, two desktop computers, several external hard drives, multiple recordable CDs, and a handwritten ledger listing the file names were seized. Forensic examination of the items recovered revealed over 39,000 images of child pornography.

This case was part of the Project Safe Childhood initiative, a national program aimed at ensuring that criminals exploiting children are effectively prosecuted by making full use of all available law enforcement resources at every level. For more information about this important national project, Project Safe Childhood, go to www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Investigation of this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Cyber Crime Task Force, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and the Bladen County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant United States Attorney Ethan Ontjes prosecuted the case.