Saline County Man Sentenced to 40 Years for Production of Child Pornography

LITTLE ROCK—Christopher R. Thyer, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, announced that Mark Gilbert, age 47, of Mabelvale, Arkansas, was sentenced by United States District Judge Billy Roy Wilson to 40 years’ imprisonment with a lifetime of supervised release for two counts of production of child pornography. Gilbert also forfeited all the computer equipment used in the commission of the crime.

On April 8, 2010, Gilbert was indicted by a federal grand jury. The indictment alleges that between June 2007 and August 2008, Gilbert took pictures of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and that he possessed child pornography.

This case was investigated by the Saline County Sheriff’s Department and the Little Rock Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

These case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Marsha Clevenger as a part of Project Safe Childhood.

Project Safe Childhood is 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 information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.