PADUCAH, KY – A former Fort Campbell, Kentucky, soldier has pled guilty to charges of knowingly possessing, mailing, transporting and shipping child pornography while residing within the Fort Campbell Military Reservation and during active duty in Iraq, announced David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

Timothy Lee Hansen, age 25, appeared in United States District Court in Paducah, Kentucky, yesterday and entered a guilty plea to a four-count federal Indictment brought by a federal grand jury on August 17, 2011. Prior to his indictment, Hansen had been charged in a Criminal Complaint on July 19, 2011. During an earlier hearing, Chief United States District Judge Thomas B. Russell ordered Hansen detained without bond.

According to court records, between February 2010, and February 15, 2011, Hansen, also known as “Hydes420,” allegedly used a “peer-to-peer” internet file sharing software to download, store and trade digital images of child pornography. A subpoena issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), tracked the IP address of the computer used to distribute child pornography to a computer belonging to Hansen and located in a soldier’s barracks at Fort Campbell. The information was turned over to the United States Army, Criminal Investigation Division (CID) at Fort Campbell on February 14, 2011.

Hansen was identified as an active-duty soldier assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group. According to the Complaint, Hansen allegedly told investigators that he possessed approximately 100 megabytes of child pornography on his personal computers at Fort Campbell. He further allegedly admitted that he obtained and used the child pornography for sexual gratification.

Hansen faces a statutory mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years in prison. The maximum potential penalties are 70 years in prison, a fine of $1,000,000 and a period of supervised release of at least 5 years and could be for the remainder of his life. Sentencing before Chief Judge Russell is scheduled for October 17, 2012 in Louisville.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jo E. Lawless and is being investigated by the FBI and United States Army CID.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."

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