WASHINGTON – A Virginia man has pleaded guilty to attempted receipt of child pornography, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher for the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg for the Eastern District of Virginia announced today.
Paul B. Jones, 57, of Woodbridge, Va., a Department of Defense civilian employee, pleaded guilty at a hearing before Judge T.S. Ellis III of the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia yesterday to one count of attempted receipt of child pornography for subscribing to various child pornography web sites between November 2006 and March 2007. Jones paid approximately $785 for subscriptions to nine child pornography websites over this five-month period. Jones also admitted that he had been viewing child pornography on the Internet since the early 1990s and in magazines since 1977. Jones’ collection of child pornography included depictions of children as young as seven years old engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Jones was indicted on Aug. 23, 2007, on one count of attempted receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography in the wake of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) national investigation into a commercial child pornography website.
Jones faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and at least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release. He will also be required to register as a sex offender in any jurisdiction in which he lives or works. Sentencing has been scheduled for Jan. 11, 2008.
This case is being brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, created in February 2006 as a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, 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.
The investigation is being conducted by ICE and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerald J. Smagala and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward J. McAndrew, who is on detail from the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Department of Justice.
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