Somerset Man Pleads Guilty to the Production of Child Pornography

LONDON, Ky. - A Somerset, Kentucky man, Bradley D. Hall, 38, pleaded guilty on Tuesday, before U.S. District Court Judge Claria Horn Boom, to two counts of production of child pornography.         

According to his plea agreement, on September 15, 2019, Hall engaged in a conversation with an undercover FBI employee using the Kik messenger application. Hall admitted to operating a Kik messenger group which focused on child exploitation. Hall admitted to recording, live streaming, and sending videos of child pornography to the undercover FBI employee.

Hall was indicted in September 2019.

Robert M. Duncan, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and James Robert Brown, Jr., Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office, jointly announced the guilty plea.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI.  The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jenna Reed.

Hall is scheduled to be sentenced on October 27, 2020. He faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, a maximum sentence of 60 years, and will be responsible for restitution to the victim in the case. However, the sentence will be imposed by the Court, after its consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal sentencing statutes. 

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 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.

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