Maryland Man Sentenced to More Than Nine Years in Prison for Distribution of Child Pornography

WASHINGTON—Paul Robinson, 34, of Great Mills, Maryland, has been sentenced to a prison term of nine-and-a-half years for distribution of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein, James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and Richard A. McFeely, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office.

Robinson pled guilty to the charge in September 2011 and was sentenced on December 1, 2011 by the Honorable Gladys Kessler in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Upon completion of his prison term, he will be placed on 10 years of supervised release.

According to a factual proffer presented during the plea proceedings, on May 11, 2011, a Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) member of the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, who was operating undercover, communicated with the defendant by e-mail and instant messenger. During the course of the communications, Robinson expressed interest in meeting an under-aged girl and engaging in sexual contact with the child. Also during the course of the communications, Robinson sent the undercover investigator nine images of child pornography. During communications the next day, Robinson expressed interest in watching the undercover performing sex acts with the under-aged girl via a web camera over the Internet.

Law enforcement obtained an arrest warrant for Robinson and a search warrant for his residence in Great Mills, Maryland. On May 23, 2011, Robinson was arrested. A forensic analysis of computer equipment inside Robinson’s residence confirmed that Robinson also possessed 100 images and six videos of child pornography.

This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative and investigated by the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of the FBI’s Washington Field Office and MPD. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland and the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office provided assistance in the case.

Project Safe Childhood is 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 U.S. 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, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen, U.S. Attorney Rosenstein, Assistant Director McJunkin, and Special Agent in Charge McFeely praised the MPD detectives and special agents of the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force. They also commended the work of U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Investigator John Marsh. Finally, they praised the efforts of Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Saler of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stacy Belf, LisaMarie Freitas, Sharon Donovan, and David B. Kent, who prosecuted this case.