In Midland this morning, Senior United States District Judge Robert A. Junell sentenced 47–year-old Kyle Unterbrink to 15 years in federal prison for advertising online to produce, buy, sell or trade child pornography announced Acting United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr., and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge Waldemar Rodriguez, El Paso Division.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Junell ordered that the defendant pay $51,000 restitution to the identified victims of the child pornography he possessed and distributed. Judge Junell also ordered that Unterbrink be placed on supervised release for 10 years following the completion of his prison term. In February, Unterbrink pleaded guilty to the advertising child pornography charge. Unterbrink, who has remained in federal custody since his arrest on December 11, 2014, has agreed to forfeit his residence to the Government to satisfy his court ordered restitution.

According to court records, over the course of several days in November 2014, HSI agents identified the defendant’s IP address as one which was making almost 2,000 images of prepubescent child pornography available to anyone in the world who was connected to the same network. On December 11, 2014, agents conducted a search warrant at the defendant’s residence and seized various electronic devices belonging to Unterbrink. A subsequent search of the seized items revealed the presence of approximately 6,700 images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors downloaded from the Internet.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations together with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Texas Department of Public Safety. Assistant U.S. Attorney Austin Berry prosecuted this case on behalf of the Government.

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 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 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.