New Albany Man Charged with Distributing and Possessing Pornographic Images of Babies and Toddlers
U.S. Attorney’s Project Safe Childhood Continues Protecting Hoosier Children

INDIANAPOLIS—United States Attorney Joseph Hogsett today announced formal charges against a New Albany man for distribution and possession of child pornography. Patrick Logan Durrett, 24, was charged in an information filed in federal court.

“Protecting the most vulnerable of our citizens remains one of the highest priorities of my office,” said U.S. Attorney Joseph Hogsett. “I will use every resource available to keep these Internet offenders away from our children and hold them accountable.”

As alleged by the government, in February, 2012, Durrett was making child pornography available for other users to download via the Internet using a peer-to-peer (P2P) networking file-sharing program. Undercover FBI agents made contact with Durrett, and the undercover agents were able to download at least 46 computer files depicting children engaged in sexually explicit activity from Durrett. The files distributed to the undercover agents included videos and images of explicit sexual abuse of children as young as four months old. Several of the images and videos depicted the sexual abuse of infant girls, including one image depicting bondage of a baby girl.

Investigators tracked the distribution of the images to Durrett’s house, and executed a search warrant at the house on March 15, 2012. During the search, law enforcement officers located at least hundreds of files of apparent child pornography depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including some of the images previously distributed to the undercover agents. The victims depicted in the images and videos located during the search were generally under the age of 5 years old. Evidence at Durrett’s home indicated he not only possessed the pornography but distributed it to others. Durrett was arrested by FBI agents on March 15, 2012, in New Albany, and is in the custody of the United States Marshal pending the resolution of this case.

“Our Project Safe Childhood initiative has seen a disturbing trend in child pornography cases exploiting children as young as toddlers and infants. Sexual abuse of children only a few months old would seem unimaginable, but just last year, our office prosecuted David Bostic, of Bloomington, who was sentenced to 315 years in federal prison for production and distribution of child pornography depicting the sexual abuse of Hoosier children,” said Hogsett. “These victims cannot speak and cannot protect themselves, but this office will prosecute these offenders to the fullest extent of the law.”

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Myers, who is prosecuting the case for the government, Durrett faces up to 20 years of imprisonment for distribution of child pornography and up to 10 years of imprisonment for possession of child pornography, along with a $250,000 fine and lifetime supervised release for each offense, if convicted.

This case was the result of an investigation by the FBI, Indiana State Police, New Albany Police Department, Kokomo Police Department, and the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

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 (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 on Project Safe Childhood, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.