West Mifflin Man Sentenced to 100 Months in Prison for Distributing Child Pornography

PITTSBURGH, PA—On Feb. 9, 2012, a resident of West Mifflin, Pennsylvania pleaded guilty and was sentenced in federal court to serve 100 months in prison followed by 25 years’ supervised release for violating federal child sexual exploitation laws, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.

Mark Buckner, 45, pleaded guilty to one count and was sentenced by United States District Judge Joy Flowers Conti for distributing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

In connection with the guilty plea, the court was advised that Buckner possessed over 3,000 image and video files depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including a file depicting a 6- to 8-year-old prepubescent female child with a collar around her neck and a yellow rope around her arms giving oral sex to an adult male in bondage fashion. Buckner allowed these files to be shared over an Internet peer-to-peer network. The court was further advised that Buckner collected numerous short stories detailing the rape of young children as well as a news article about a man who murdered children.

Assistant United States Attorney Craig W. Haller prosecuted this case on behalf of the United States.

U.S. Attorney Hickton commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office, the Pennsylvania Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Homeland Security Investigations Section of the Department of Homeland Security, and the West Mifflin Police Department for the successful investigation leading to the conviction in this case.