Oklahoma City Man Sentenced to 60 Years in Prison for Advertising Child Pornography

OKLAHOMA CITY—MARK EDWARD HAMME, 45, of Oklahoma City, was sentenced today to serve 720 months in federal prison for advertising child pornography by United States District Court Judge Stephen P. Friot, announced Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.

“Hamme is a child predator through and through.” said U.S. Attorney Coats. “Hamme facilitated the abuse and exploitation of children in several ways, including by operating a prolific network of child pornography. The prison sentence imposed by the court will ensure that Hamme will never harm another child.”

According to court records, for several years Hamme advertised access to a child pornography trading network that he moderated. In order to gain access to Hamme’s network, prospective members had to e-mail him child pornography in the amount of 25 pictures or a video in excess of one minute. Hamme was interested in child pornography depicting prepubescent boys. At sentencing, the court considered evidence that Hamme was a serial predator whose victims included infants, toddlers, and preteens of both sexes.

Hamme was indicted on February 19, 2013, and pled guilty on April 29, 2013. Hamme faced a heightened maximum sentence of 60 years’ imprisonment because at the time of his federal offense he was already a registered sex offender due to Cherokee County convictions for molesting children.

This case was part of Project Safe Childhood, the flagship program in the Department of Justice’s National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction, and was the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Marshals Service. The case was prosecuted by United States Attorney Sanford C. Coats and Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Hale.