Child Pornographer Sentenced To Five Years

Elijah Fogle, 22, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was sentenced today to 60 months in prison for distribution of child pornography, receipt of child pornography, and possession of child pornography.  U.S. District Court Judge Petrese Tucker also ordered 10 years of supervised release and a $300 special assessment. 

Fogle pleaded guilty on July 30, 2013 and admitted that he had amassed a collection of child pornography on his computer and a thumb-drive that included hundreds of images and videos of children being sexually abused.  He also admitted that he had distributed and received child pornography images over the Internet by uploading them to a file sharing website.

A special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, acting in an undercover capacity, signed into a “covert” account on a private peer to peer network in February 2012 and engaged in an online chat with a user later identified as the defendant. During the chat, Fogle advised he had folders to share that were on a flash drive and needed to be online for viewing. That same day, the agent selected 19 video files and discovered child exploitation activity. The downloaded files depicted children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. A full forensic examination of the defendant’s laptop computer and thumb-drive was conducted during which 835 images and 362 videos of child pornography were recovered.  The images and videos on the thumb drive were contained in a hidden folder, which was consistent with being created to avoid discovery.  The majority of the collection depicts prepubescent and pubescent males, many of which are clearly under the age of 12 years. During an interrogation the defendant admitted that he had sexually abused a 12 year old boy from his neighborhood in North Carolina.

The case was investigated by the Homeland Security Investigations and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Tomika N. Stevens.

UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, EASTERN DISTRICTof PENNSYLVANIA
Suite 1250, 615 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
PATTY HARTMAN, Media Contact, 215-861-8525