Luzerne County Man Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison for Attempting to Produce Child Pornography
| U.S. Attorney’s Office February 04, 2013 |
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a 29-year-old Forty Fort resident was sentenced today to serve 12 years in federal prison by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Edwin M. Kosik for to attempting to produce child pornography.
According to United States Attorney Peter J. Smith, Joshua Campbell was previously indicted by a federal grand jury in Kansas in June 2012 for persuading a 12-year-old female to take sexually explicit photographs of herself and transmit them to the defendant via computer. This activity occurred during 2008 and 2009.
The charge against Campbell resulted from an investigation by special agents and task force officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Kansas and Scranton and detectives from the Lackawanna County District Attorney’s Office. The indictment against Campbell originated in Kansas and was later transferred to the Middle District of Pennsylvania for prosecution. Campbell subsequently pleaded guilty to attempting to produce child pornography.
Judge Kosik also ordered that Campbell be placed on supervised release for life following his prison sentence and pay a fine of $500. Campbell must also receive sex offender treatment and comply with sex offender registration and notification requirements.
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 Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “Resources.”
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa.