HOUSTON—A 63-year-old Missouri City man has been indicted on federal child pornography charges, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson. The three-count indictment charges Louis Clifford Smith Jr. with one count each of receipt, access with intent to view and possession of child pornography.

The indictment was returned today. He is expected to make his initial appearance before a U.S. magistrate judge in the near future.

Court documents allege that Smith came to the attention of law enforcement after investigators found evidence he was accessing files from a website known to contain child pornography. According to the criminal complaint originally filed in the case, a search warrant was executed on Smith’s Missouri City residence on July 31, 2015, at which investigators found a voluminous number of images of prepubescent girls with their genitals lasciviously displayed and being penetrated in a variety of ways.

Smith appeared in court at a hearing on the initial charges on Aug. 6, 2015. At that time, the government presented evidence that he had more than 60,000 images and more than 4,500 videos of child pornography.

If convicted, Smith faces a minimum of five and up to 20 years’ imprisonment for the receipt of child pornography, while the other two charges carry a possible term of up to 10 years in federal prison.

The charges are the result of an investigation by the FBI and the Pearland Police Department.

This case, prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri Zack and Kimberly Leo, was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence.

A defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted through due process of law.