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Press Release

Denver Man Sentenced to Prison for Child Pornography

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Colorado

DENVER – Andrew Workman, age 26 of Lone Tree, Colorado was sentenced today by the Hon. R. Brooke Jackson in U.S. District Court to 97 months of imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release.  He will also have to register as a sex offender. Workman was indicted by a Grand Jury in October, 2015, for receipt and possession of child pornography.

According to court filings and hearings, Workman was a member of a child pornography board called “Playpen” that was hidden on the dark web via the Tor network.  The FBI obtained approval from a federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia to deploy a Network Investigative Technique (NIT) to pierce through the anonymity provided by the Tor network and obtain IP addresses for the users of the website, including Workman.  Using the IP address information, the FBI obtained a search warrant for Workman’s house in Colorado. When agents arrived to execute the search warrant, Workman was in the act of downloading child pornography video files onto his computer using peer to peer software.  An exam of his computer showed that Workman was in possession of over 1,200 images and videos of child pornography, many of which showed toddlers and babies suffering violent sexual abuse.

In June 2016, Workman moved to suppress the evidence against him and challenged the legality of the search warrants.  In September 2016, the District Court granted the motions and suppressed the evidence.  The United States appealed the ruling.  In July 2017, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reversed. On November 3, 2017, Workman pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography. 

“Workman robbed children of their innocence.  Today he pays with years of his life,” said United States Attorney Bob Troyer.  “Prosecutors in my office, together with our law enforcement partners, are working right now to take offenders like Workman out of the darkness, and put them behind bars.  Our children deserve no less.”

“Combating the exploitation and victimization of children is one of the FBI’s top priorities,” said FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge, Calvin Shivers. “Today’s sentence demonstrates those who prey on children will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”  

The case was investigated by the FBI Denver and the Denver Police Department.  Assistant United States Attorneys David Tonini and Judith A. Smith, Chief of the Cybercrime and National Security Section, represented the United States in the District Court.  Attorney John P. Taddei of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, Appellate Section, handled the appeal. 

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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, 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.justice.gov/psc.

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Updated April 10, 2018

Topic
Project Safe Childhood