U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite announced that JOHNNY SMITH, age 43, a resident of Raceland, Louisiana, was sentenced today after previously pleading guilty to the sexual exploitation of children and possession of images depicting the sexual victimization of children under the age of twelve-years-old.

U.S. District Judge Sarah S. Vance sentenced SMITH to292 months’ imprisonment, followed by a lifetime of supervised release. In addition, SMITH will have to register as a sex offender. A restitution hearing has been scheduled for December 10, 2014.

According to the court documents, after a lengthy investigation Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) special agents executed a search warrant on SMITH’S home on July 23, 2013, during which they seized several items of electronic evidence. During a review of the evidence, agents found videos SMITHrecorded in which he engaged in sexually explicit conduct with a three-year-old girl. SMITH recorded the videos between about May 12, 2013, and June 23, 2013. Agents also found approximately seven videos of seventeen images depicting children under the age of twelve engaged in sexually explicit conduct thatSMITH had downloaded and saved to his computer.

U.S. Attorney Polite stated, “Today’s sentence of 24 years’ imprisonment is most appropriate, given that Mr. Smith engaged in, and made video recordings of, sex acts with a three-year-old. Our Office will remain vigilant in bringing to justice all those who create and circulate these hideous depictions of the sexual exploitation of children.”

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.”

U.S. Attorney Polite praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in investigating this matter. Assistant United States Attorney Jordan Ginsberg is in charge of the prosecution.