Contractor Who was Stationed in Afghanistan is Sentenced to 20 Years in Federal Prison for Sending Images of Child Pornography to a Fort Worth Resident
| U.S. Attorney’s Office December 21, 2012 |
FORT WORTH, TX—A New Hampshire man stationed in Afghanistan who sent child pornography to a Fort Worth, Texas, resident, whom he met while he attended DynCorp International job training in Fort Worth, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge John McBryde to 240 months in federal prison and a lifetime of supervised release, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas. James M. Markwith, 31, pleaded guilty in September 2012 to an indictment charging one count of transporting and distributing a visual depiction of a minor for importation into the U.S. Markwith has been in federal custody since his arrest in June 2012 in the District of New Hampshire on a related charge filed in the Northern District of Texas.
According to documents filed in the case, soon after Markwith met B.F. in Fort Worth earlier this year, he was transferred to Kabul, Afghanistan. Markwith and B.F. continued to communicate through Skype instant messaging, telephone, and e-mail. In early April 2012, the conversations became sexual in nature, and on April 7, 2012, Markwith sent B.F. images of child pornography.
This matter was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, 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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “Resources.”
The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aisha Saleem.