Virginia Man Sentenced to 70 Months in Prison and Fined $12,500 for Transferring Child Pornography Via the Internet

WASHINGTON—A 64-year-old Virginia man, William Hedgepeth, has been sentenced to 70 months in prison for transferring child pornography over the Internet, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today.

Hedgepeth, of Falls Church, Virginia, received his sentence yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Richard W. Roberts, who also ordered that the defendant be placed on 120 months of supervised release upon completion of his prison sentence. The Court also imposed a $12,500 fine. The sentence follows Hedgepeth's guilty plea in October 2008 to Transporting or Shipping Material Involving the Sexual Exploitation of Minors and Possessing Material Constituting or Containing Child Pornography.

The defendant admitted during the plea proceeding that between February 2007 and March 2008, he engaged in numerous Internet conversations with a Washington Metropolitan Police Detective working in an undercover capacity in which he discussed having sex with young girls. During those conversations, the defendant also transmitted, through the use of Yahoo! Instant Messaging, approximately 20 images depicting child pornography. Specifically, these images showed children who appear to be under the age of twelve, including some under the age of five, engaged in suggestive posing and in various sexual acts with adults.

During a search of the defendant's residence in April 2008, law enforcement officers recovered a computer that contained between 150 and 300 images of child pornography involving prepubescent females ranging in age from approximately three to five years old to young teens.

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 (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.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor commended the work of Washington Metropolitan Police Detective Timothy Palchak, who conducted the undercover investigation, and FBI Special Agent Jill Blackman of the Washington Field Office's Child Exploitation Squad, who assisted with the investigation. He also thanked the FBI's Child Exploitation Squad and the Fairfax County, Virginia Police Department for their assistance with the search and arrest. Finally, he thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCormack of the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Virginia for his assistance with the search, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Schmidt, who prosecuted the case.