Repeat Sex Offender Sentenced to Over Ten Years in Prison for Possession of Child Pornography

     PHOENIX – On May 9, 2016, David Lee Frater, 63, of Mesa, Ariz., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell to 125 months in prison followed by a lifetime term of supervised release. Frater had previously pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.

     In 2014, a detective in New Zealand encountered a user on a popular file-sharing software who was distributing images of child pornography.  Through this investigation, it was learned that the individual was Frater, who had also been advertising child pornography under alternate online personas.  Frater was an unregistered sex offender who had previously been convicted of possession of child pornography and annoying or molesting a child under 18.  A search warrant was executed at Frater’s residence which revealed he was in possession of over 28,000 images and 713 videos of child pornography, some of which depicted prepubescent minors and sadistic or masochistic conduct.  In sentencing Frater, Judge Campbell indicated that child pornography is a “scourge of society” that preys on helpless victims and to traffic the materials “fuels the fire that is consuming many children.”

     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, 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 investigation in this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigations as assisted by the New Zealand Customs Service and other law enforcement agencies in New Zealand.  The prosecution was handled by Rachel Reames Stoddard, Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, Phoenix.

CASE NUMBER:           CR-14-1517-PHX-DGC

RELEASE NUMBER:   2016-044_Frater

# # #

For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/

Follow the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, on Twitter @USAO_AZ for the latest news.