Belleville Man Sentenced in Child Pornography Case

A. Courtney Cox, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that on July 30, 2010, RICKY WALKER, age 59, of Belleville, Illinois, was sentenced in United States District Court in East St. Louis after previously pleading guilty to a one count indictment charging him with knowingly possessing child pornography. WALKER was sentenced to 78 months, followed by a lifetime term of supervised release. In addition, the court imposed a fine in the amount of $750, and a $100 special assessment. The violation occurred in 2008.

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 United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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.

The investigation in this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigations Cybercrimes Task Force. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Nicole E. Gorovsky.