Mechanicsville Man Sentenced for Receipt of Child Pornography

RICHMOND, VA—William Mills, age 45, of Mechanicsville, Virginia, was sentenced yesterday by Senior United States District Judge Robert E. Payne to 151 months’ incarceration for one count of receipt of child pornography. Mills pled guilty to the charge on January 18, 2011. Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, announced the sentence.

According to court documents, Mills was identified by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation during an undercover investigation of individuals trading images of child sexual abuse over the Internet on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. Based on this and other corroborating information, agents executed a search warrant at Mills’s residence, where they seized Mills’computer and cell phone. A subsequent forensic examination of the equipment revealed hundreds of child pornography images and over a dozen child pornography videos that had been acquired by Mills. The images portrayed prepubescent children being sexually abused and included images of sadistic and masochistic conduct.

Information was provided in open court that in 2006, an individual reported to Henrico County Police Department that in 1988, when the individual was 11 years old, Mills sexually molested her. The police report also contained allegations that Mills sexually abused a minor child on multiple occasions over a period of years preceding 2006.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Hanover County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth C. Wu prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.uspci.uscourts.gov.