Chaska Man Charged with Possessing Child Pornography
| U.S. Attorney’s Office September 07, 2011 |
MINNEAPOLIS—Yesterday in federal court, a 66-year-old Chaska man was charged with possessing child pornography. On September 6, 2011, Wayne Lee Bourne was charged via an information with one count of possession of child pornography.
On June 21, 2007, Bourne allegedly possessed one or more matters, including a computer, which contained visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
If convicted, Bourne faces a potential maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. All sentences will be determined by a federal district court judge. This case is the result of an investigation by the Minnesota Cyber Crimes Task Force, which is sponsored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Secret Service. Other agencies that participated in the investigation include the Chaska Police Department, and the FBI’s Birmingham, Alabama and Philadelphia Field Offices. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly A. Svendsen.
Presently, the Justice Department is funding a study concerning the correlation between involvement in child pornography and the hands-on sexual abuse of children. A 2008 study (The Butner Study) published in the Journal of Family Violence found that up to 80 percent of federal inmates incarcerated for possession, receipt, or distribution of child pornography also admitted to hands-on sexual abuse of children, ranging from touching to rape.
The U.S. Department of Justice is committed to combating the sexual exploitation of children, particularly via the Internet. In fiscal year 2010, 2,235 defendants pleaded guilty to federal child pornography charges, 2,222 of whom were sentenced to prison. In fiscal year 2009, 2,083 defendants were sentenced to prison on child pornography charges. For more information about these efforts, please visit the Department’s Project Safe Childhood website, at www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
A defendant, of course, is presumed innocent until he or she pleads guilty or is proven guilty at trial.