Virginia Man Sentenced to Eight Years in Prison for Distribution and Possession of Child Pornography

WASHINGTON—John Patrick Swain, 45, of Sterling, Virginia, was sentenced today to eight years in prison on federal charges of distribution and possession of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr.; Debra Evans Smith, Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; and Cathy L. Lanier, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

Swain pled guilty to the charges in September 2012 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He was sentenced by the Honorable James E. Boasberg. Upon completion of his prison term, Swain will be placed on 10 years of supervised release. He also must register as a sex offender for 25 years following his release from prison.

According to the government’s evidence, on June 27, 2012, Swain contacted a man he believed to be the father of a 12-year-old girl using a social network site. That man turned out to be an undercover officer with the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force. Over the next few days, Swain engaged in online conversations with the undercover officer. During this period, Swain sent the undercover officer 13 images of child pornography, including videos of adult men engaged in sexual acts with children.

Upon execution of a search warrant on the defendant’s residence in Sterling, members of the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force recovered a desktop computer as well as various external storage devices containing numerous videos and images of child pornography.

This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative and investigated by the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of the FBI’s Washington Field Office and MPD. Project Safe Childhood is 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, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen, Acting Assistant Director in Charge Smith, and Chief Lanier praised the work of the MPD detectives and special agents of the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force. They also commended the efforts of Assistant U.S. Attorney Ari Redbord, who prosecuted the case.