Louisville Man Guilty of Harboring 20,000 Images of Child Pornography

LOUISVILLE, KY—A Louisville man pleaded guilty in United States District Court before Magistrate Judge Dave Whalin to a six-count federal grand jury indictment charging him with violating federal child pornography laws including the possession of child pornography announced David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

Philip Haering admitted in court to using a peer-to-peer file sharing network to download images of child pornography between May 19, 2006 and May 3, 2011. According to the factual basis found in the plea agreement, an FBI agent utilizing the same peer-to-peer file sharing network downloaded several password protected files from Haering. During the download, the agent was able to preview one of the files, a movie, that contained child pornography.

The FBI obtained and executed a federal search warrant on August 16, 2011, for Haering’s home address. During the execution of the search warrant, Haering admitted to viewing child pornography. He also admitted to having downloaded child pornography since 2003 and claimed to have filled a laptop, two external hard drives, and 44 thumb drives with files of child pornography.

A forensic examination revealed over 20,000 files of child pornography. The thumb drives had a total of 2,103 known files of child pornography. The one-terabyte hard drive had 4,764 known files of child pornography. The 500 GB hard drive had 4,446 known files of child pornography, and both laptops had a total of 3,784 known files of child pornography. The forensic examination also revealed that Haering received child pornography on May 19, 2006; September 7, 2008; and August 15, 2011.

Haering faces a statutory mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison. The maximum potential penalties are 110 years in prison, a fine of $1,500,000, and a period of supervised release of at least five years and could be for the remainder of his life. Sentencing is scheduled before Judge Whalin on August 29, 2013, in Louisville.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney A. Spencer McKiness and is being investigated by the FBI.

This case 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.”