Boise Man Sentenced for Internet Sex Crime

BOISE - William Bryon Chest, 41, of Boise, Idaho, was sentenced today to 60 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release for transfer and attempted transfer of obscene images to minors, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.  Chest pleaded guilty on January 15, 2015.

According to the plea agreement, in April and May 2014, Chest sent sexually explicit images accompanied by graphic sexual messages to a 13-year-old girl from Oregon and convinced her to send nude photos of herself to him using the social media website “Kik.”  “Kik” is an instant messaging service based in Canada that is available as an application for smart phones.  The FBI in Portland was notified and an agent took over the girl’s identity and continued to communicate with Chest.  According to the plea agreement, Chest sent obscene images to the undercover agent, and twice discussed plans to travel to Oregon to meet the teen girl for sex, although he never actually did so.  Chest was arrested at his home in Boise on September 25, 2014, and has remained in custody since.

The case was investigated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Portland and Boise, assisted by officers from the Boise Police Department and the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

This case 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 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.”