Man Pleads Guilty to Possession of Child Pornography

BUFFALO, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Jay M. Henke, 35, of Lancaster, NY, pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief District Judge William M. Skretny, to a felony charge of possession of child pornography. The charge carries a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango, who is handling the case, stated that from August of 2006 to June of 2010, Henke possessed images of child pornography that were stored on his e-mail account. These images were obtained from a minor victim who was 15 years old at the time she took and e-mailed the images to Henke. He then stored the images using his America Online e-mail account and on AOL servers located in the state of Virginia.

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 plea 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 along with the Lancaster Police Department , under the direction of Captain Timothy Murphy.

Sentencing is scheduled for January 6, 2011 at 9 a.m. EST, in Buffalo, NY, in front of Judge Skretny.