Venango County Man Sentenced to Prison for Possessing Child Pornography

PITTSBURGH—A resident of Venango County, Pennsylvania was sentenced in federal court on April 23, 2012 to 48 months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release on his conviction of possession of material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.

United States District Judge Joy Flowers Conti imposed the sentence on Joseph Andrew Davis, 42.

According to information presented to the court, on or about May 5, 2009, Davis knowingly possessed visual depictions, namely, images and videos contained in computer graphics files, the production of which involved the use of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

Assistant United States Attorney Jessica Lieber Smolar prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

U.S. Attorney Hickton commended the Pennsylvania State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Davis.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.