Man Sentenced on Child Pornography Charges

BUFFALO, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that James W. Skrok, 45 of Buffalo, who was convicted of five felony counts of distributing, receiving, and possessing child pornography, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and lifetime supervised release by U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Arcara. As part of the sentence, Skrok also agreed to forfeit his interest in a residence that he and his siblings inherited.  

Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango, who handled the case, stated that between February 2008 and July of 2009, Skrok received, distributed, and possessed child pornography on three computer hard drives. On July 9, 2009, the hard drives were seized during the execution of a search warrant at Skrok's residence at 1034 Clinton Street in Buffalo. The hard drives contained 462 images and 167 videos of child pornography. Also during the investigation it was determined that Skrok had sexually molested a 4-year-old minor female. The molestation continued for approximately 10 years. It was also learned that Skrok had inappropriate contact with another minor female child.

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  Special Agent-in-Charge James H. Robertson. Additional assistance was provided by the Western New York Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, which conducted the forensic analysis of the computer hard drives.