Home Washington Press Releases 2011 Former Security Guard Sentenced to 210 Months for Producing Child Pornography
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Former Security Guard Sentenced to 210 Months for Producing Child Pornography

U.S. Attorney’s Office January 07, 2011
  • Eastern District of Virginia (703) 299-3700

ALEXANDRIA, VA—Steven John Thorpe, 61, of Manassas, Va., was sentenced to 210 months in prison, followed by a lifetime term of supervised release, for producing images and videos depicting a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee.

On Oct. 20, 2010, Thorpe pled guilty to producing child pornography. According to court documents, Thorpe admitted to sharing child pornography images and videos with an undercover FBI agent in February through April of 2010. On Aug. 26, 2010, FBI agents executed a search warrant at Thorpe’s residence, where they seized several computer hard drives and a Mini DV Recorder. Forensic analysis of Thorpe’s hard drives revealed more than 3,800 child pornography images and more than 280 child pornography videos. Two of those videos and eight of those images were recorded by Thorpe using his Mini DV Recorder.

The forensic review of Thorpe’s computers also revealed multiple videos, recorded by Thorpe on his Mini DV Recorder, depicting clothed minors being filmed surreptitiously, often from the inside of a vehicle. Many of those videos depict children playing in a residential community where Thorpe was employed as a security guard.

This case was investigated by the FBI Innocent Images Task Force. Assistant United States Attorney Jeffrey Zeeman prosecuted this case on behalf of the United States.

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.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pacer.login.uscourts.gov.

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