Man Sentenced for Possession of Child Pornography

BUFFALO, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Peter Adrian Ranic III, 40, of Hamburg, NY, who was convicted of possession of child pornography on April 27, 2010, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and lifetime supervised release by Chief U.S. District  Judge William M. Skretny.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango, who handled the case, stated that on March 30th, 2009, Ranic possessed an external hard drive that contained approximately 33 images of child pornography. Some of the images depicted prepubescent children younger than 12. This offense involved the permitting of a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct, which results in the application of a more severe federal sentencing guideline.

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 conviction was the culmination of an investigation on the part of special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of James H. Robertson, Special Agent-in-Charge, and the Town of Hamburg Police Department under the direction of Police Chief Carmen Kesner.