NEW ORLEANS—U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite announced that ANDREW HUTCHINSON, age, 24, of New Orleans, pled guilty today to a one-count Bill of Information for crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children. Specifically, HUTCHINSON pled guilty to receiving and attempting to receive sexually explicit images of children.

According to court documents, HUTCHINSON used a mobile cellular phone chat application to converse with a twelve-year-old boy in Seattle, Washington, between July 24, 2014, and July 27, 2014. Knowing that the boy was only twelve, HUTCHINSON requested and received approximately fifteen sexually explicit images of the boy via the messaging application. In exchange, HUTCHINSON provided the boy sexually explicit images of minor females as young as approximately five years old. HUTCHINSON also provided the boy with a link to an online cloud storage account that contained approximately 1766 images and 19 videos depicting minor females as young as approximately eighteen months old engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

HUTCHINSON faces a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of five years and a maximum penalty of twenty years, followed by up to a life term of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. He can also be required to register as a sex offender. U.S. District Judge Ivan L.R. Lemelle set sentencing for February 3, 2016.

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 Attorneys Jordan Ginsberg is in charge of the prosecution.