LOUISVILLE, KY – A South Carolina man arrested in Kentucky on a federal warrant and criminal complaint charging him with bank fraud, was sentenced in U.S. District Court today, by Senior Judge Thomas B. Russell, to eight years and one month in prison followed by 20 years of supervised release for transporting and possessing child pornography, announced David J. Hale, Untied States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

John Nathaniel Babb, age 31, pled guilty to a two count federal indictment on July 19, 2011. According to the plea agreement, on August 30, 2009, Babb was arrested in the Western District of Kentucky, on charges of bank fraud, after fleeing from law enforcement in South Carolina. At the time of his arrest, two laptop computers were seized from Babb’s hotel room. On October 27, 2009, while conducting a forensic search for evidence of bank fraud, images of child pornography were inadvertently discovered on the laptops that Babb allegedly admitted that he owned and had brought from South Carolina to Kentucky. A search warrant later determined that both computers contained numerous images and videos of child pornography. As a result of Babb’s guilty plea, he was ordered to forfeit a 2006 Dodge Durango and two laptop computers.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s 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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney A. Spencer McKiness and was investigated by the United States Secret Service.

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