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Press Release

Huntington Man Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Crime

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of West Virginia

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Craig Alexander Halstead, 36, of Huntington, pleaded guilty today to receipt of child pornography.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Halstead admitted to receiving 87,993 digital media files of child pornography via peer-to-peer file sharing programs from about August 2, 2019, until about August 18, 2022. Halstead further admitted that one of the digital media files was a video of an adult male sexually assaulting a prepubescent female.

On May 20, 2021, Halstead possessed 3,970 images and 443 videos on his laptop and external hard drive depicting minor children subjected to sexually explicit conduct. Halstead admitted that many of the images and videos depict prepubescent minors and that several of the images and videos depict known child victims.

On or about August 30, 2022, Halstead possessed 3,188 images and videos of child pornography in Huntington. Over 400 of those images and videos depict known child victims. Halstead admitted that the images included infants subjected to sadistic or masochistic conduct. Halstead further admitted to accessing and receiving digital media files of child pornography using peer-to-peer programs on November 29, 2022.

Halstead is scheduled to be sentenced on August 21, 2023, and faces a mandatory minimum of  five years and up to 20 years in prison, five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.

United States Attorney Will Thompson made the announcement and commended the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Huntington Police Department.

United States District Judge Robert C. Chambers presided over the hearing. Assistant United States Attorney Julie M. White is prosecuting the case.

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.justice.gov/psc.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on PACER by searching for Case No. 3:22-cr-231.

 

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Updated October 30, 2023

Topic
Project Safe Childhood