Newport Man Sentenced in Child Pornography Case

RALEIGH—United States Attorney George E.B. Holding announced that in federal court here today United States District Judge Terrence W. Boyle sentenced ERIC LEE SPIWAK, 61, of Newport, North Carolina, to 188 months’ imprisonment followed by a lifetime of supervised release for possession of child pornography.

A Federal Grand Jury returned a Criminal Indictment on July 23, 2008.  On October 6, 2008, SPIWAK pled guilty.  Using the Internet, SPIWAK had several sexually explicit conversations with a Guilford County Sheriff’s Detective who was posing as a 14-year-old girl.  On September 8, 2006, SPIWAK traveled from Newport, North Carolina, to Greensboro, North Carolina, with the intent to engage in illegal sexual conduct with the minor as had been previously arranged in earlier conversations.  SPIWAK was arrested when he arrived at the agreed upon place.  In conjunction with SPIWAK’s arrest, a search warrant was executed on his residence.  Recovered from that search were several zipdrive computer discs containing child pornography that had been hidden behind the home computer.  Forensic analysis of the discs revealed 460 images of either child pornography or child erotica.

“We are proud of the Project Safe Childhood initiative as it gives us the ability to prosecute cases such as this to its fullest extent.  Sadly, these cases are growing in number; however, we do know that we are stopping further crimes of this nature to occur,” stated United States Attorney Holding.

This case is part of the Project Safe Childhood initiative, a national program aimed at ensuring that criminals exploiting children are effectively prosecuted by making full use of all available law enforcement resources at every level.  For more information about this important national project, Project Safe Childhood, go to www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Investigation of the case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office.  Assistant United States Attorney Ethan Ontjes served as prosecutor for the government.