James T. Jacks
Acting United States Attorney
Northern District of Texas

WICHITA COUNTY MAN SENTENCED TO MORE THAN SEVEN YEARS
IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR POSSESSING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

WICHITA FALLS, Texas — Paul Wilkinson of Kamay, Texas, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Reed C. O’Connor to 87 months in federal prison, following his guilty plea in October to one count of possession of child pornography, announced acting U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. Judge O’Connor also ordered that Wilkinson serve a lifetime of supervised release. He will also be required to register as a sex offender. Wilkinson, 24, has been in custody since his arrest in July 2008.

According to documents filed in Court, in 2007, special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement received a lead through a national operation that Wilkinson purchased access to a known child pornography website in December 2006 and January 2007. Agents then went to his residence in Kamay. Wilkinson admitted that he had used a computer to access websites containing child pornography and gave agents several hard drives, disks, and several images of child pornography that he kept in his wallet. More than 600 images of child pornography were contained on one of the hard drives that was removed from Wilkinson’s computer. Some of the images depicted prepubescent minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Wilkinson also admitted that he possessed sadistic images.

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

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aisha Saleem.

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