RENO, NV—A man who was found in possession of 6,000 images and 20 videos of child pornography, including child rape, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, lifetime supervised release, and ordered to pay $25,000 in restitution to various victims, announced U.S. Attorney Daniel G. Bogden, for the District of Nevada.

Andrew Wayne Hamrick, 30, of Carson City, Nev., who pleaded guilty on July 28, 2014, to one count of distribution of child pornography and one count of receipt of child pornography, was sentenced on April 6, by U.S. District Judge Miranda M. Du. Hamrick has been in custody since he was arrested in April 2014.

“As the investigation in this case demonstrates, there are persons trolling the Internet 24 hours-a-day looking for accomplices and innocent children to harm,” said U.S. Attorney Bogden. “Thanks to the dedication and skills of these investigators and prosecutors, we are able to identify, arrest and successfully prosecute these dangerous predators.”

According to the court records, in October 2013, Hamrick engaged in a series of e-mail and text message conversations with an FBI special agent who was posing undercover as an adult female interested in incest. Hamrick provided the undercover agent with instructions on how to teach the undercover agent’s fictional six-year old niece to engage in sexual activity. During the chat sessions, Hamrick e-mailed approximately 10 images of child pornography to the undercover agent. In March 2014, a federal search warrant was executed at Hamrick’s home in Carson City, and agents recovered two cellular telephones that, upon forensic examination, were found to contain a total of approximately 6,000 images and 20 videos of child pornography. The images and videos included depictions of child rape, bestiality, sadistic or masochistic conduct, and bondage-related activities with both young boys and girls. Agents obtained a federal arrest warrant for Hamrick, and he was arrested in Carson City while driving his vehicle. Law enforcement officials recovered another cellular telephone from Hamrick that had been activated only a few hours after the search warrant was served on his home. Several more images of child pornography were recovered from the new phone. Hamrick worked as a locksmith in Carson City.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Carla Higginbotham. It was investigated by the FBI, Nevada Attorney General’s Office, and Northern Nevada Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and 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 the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood 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 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.”