Rochester Man Sentenced in Child Pornography Case

ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Douglas Bedient, 46, of Rochester, New York, who was convicted of receiving and distributing images of child pornography and possessing child pornography, was sentenced to 24 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Charles J. Siragusa.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa J. Miller, who handled the case, stated that the defendant came to the attention of law enforcement during an undercover investigation into online trading of child pornography. Bedient pleaded guilty to receiving and distributing images of child pornography in May 2009 and to possessing images of child pornography in December 2011. This is the second child pornography conviction for the defendant, who was convicted of possessing child pornography in 1999 in United States District Court for the Western District of New York.

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 sentencing is 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 Christopher M. Piehota.