Little Rock - Christopher R. Thyer, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, announced that Malcolm Trent Cox, age 48, of North Little Rock, Arkansas, was sentenced by the Honorable Susan Webber Wright to sixty-five months imprisonment followed by five years of supervised release.

"As a result of the collaboration between federal and local law enforcement, Malcolm Trent Cox was sentenced to a significant federal prison term with no parole," stated Thyer. Cases such as this are a success at every level for the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Little Rock Police Department, and, most importantly, the children who we protect on the internet. We are so very fortunate to have valuable law enforcement partners like the Little Rock Police Department involved in Project Safe Childhood."

In May, 2009, a Little Rock Police Department detective was investigating Arkansas computers that were sharing child pornography on the internet. During this peer-to-peer investigation, the detective discovered a computer that was receiving and possessing child pornography. A subpoena to the internet service provider for the computer revealed it belonged to a resident in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

Based on this information, the detective obtained a search warrant for the Cox residence. On September 17, 2009, the search warrant was executed and computer evidence was seized. Cox was advised of his Miranda rights, waived them and admitted that he used Limewire, a file sharing software, to download child pornography. A subsequent forensic analysis of the computer equipment revealed thousands of images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

In addition to the prison term and the supervised release following imprisonment, the Court ordered that Cox undergo intensive sex offender therapy, that he register as a sex offender and that he forfeit his computer equipment. He was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshal.

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.

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