SCHUYLKILL COUNTY MAN ADMITS TO RECEIVING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

Martin C. Carlson, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, announced that a 48-year-old Saint Clair resident pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Court Judge Edwin M. Kosik to receiving child pornography during October 2005 through October 2008.

Carlson stated that Edward Udut admitted to receiving through the mail and downloading from his computer sexually explicit images of minors.

Udut was charged in a criminal information filed by the United States Attorney’s Office in May 2009, as a result of an investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspectors, the Pennsylvania State Police, Saint Clair Police, and European law enforcement. Udut’s case is part of a nationwide investigation dubbed “Operation Joint Hammer.”

Carlson noted that the plea agreement filed in the case calls for Udut to serve 70 months in prison and be placed on supervised release for life following his prison sentence.

Carlson noted that 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.

Carlson noted that the case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa.

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