United States Attorney Leura G. Canary Middle District of Alabama

MONTGOMERY MAN SENTENCED TO NINE YEARS IN FEDERAL
PRISON ON CHARGES OF POSSESSION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Michael David King, age 47, of Montgomery, was sentenced on April 10, 2007, to nine years in federal prison for possession of child pornography by U. S. District Judge W. Harold Albritton, announced U.S. Attorney Leura G. Canary. Judge Albritton also sentenced King to a lifetime of supervised release upon his release from prison.

On December 18, 2006, King pled guilty to Counts 1 and 3 of a Superseding Indictment. Count 1 charged that in February 2003, King transported 12 CDs with child pornography images from Montgomery to Saudi Arabia. Count 3 charged that in April 2006, King possessed child pornography in his home in Montgomery.

According to the indictment and other court documents, King was employed by Northrup Grumman Corporation, a defense contractor, and was working for Northrup at the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. King resided at the Friendly Forces Housing Complex, a building controlled by the United States Government. In January 2003, King was on home leave in Montgomery, where he downloaded child pornography images on to 12 recordable CDs. In February 2003, he brought the CDs with him when he returned to Saudi Arabia.

On February 23, 2003, the U.S. Air Force began an investigation based on information that King had pornographic material on his network shared hard drive. Shortly thereafter, the Air Force searched King’s room at the housing complex and seized King’s laptop computer and the12 CDs. A subsequent Air Force analysis of the CDs revealed 258 movie files depicting sex acts of children ages 3 to 16 years old, including depictions of sex with adults, rape, bondage, incest, oral sex, anal sex, masturbation, and sadistic and masochistic abuse.

Three years later, in April 2006, the FBI conducted a search of King’s residence in Montgomery. The search resulted in the seizure of computer hard drives and CD-ROMs containing more than 30,000 child pornography images.

United States Attorney Canary stated, “I am pleased that Mr. King was given a lengthy sentence for his egregious conduct. Mr. King downloaded unusually horrific images of child pornography, then transported his collection to Saudi Arabia. After he was found out, he returned to the United States, where he continued to view and download horrendous images of child pornography for three more years, amassing one of the largest, most disturbing collections this district has encountered to date. Today’s sentence recognizes the danger inherent in the proliferation of child pornography. Creating a market for the type of images in Mr. King’s collection, perpetuates the rape, torture and abuse of children.”

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In May 2006, the Department of Justice launched Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States 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 case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew O. Schiff.