Fairfax Man Pleads Guilty to Child Sexual Abuse Material Charges

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A Fairfax man pleaded guilty today to receipt of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), receipt of obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children, and possession of CSAM.

According to court documents, since at least April 2018, James Andrew Whitney, 62, used an Internet‑based peer‑to‑peer file‑sharing service to seek out and download video and image files depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Some of the images and videos depicted prepubescent minors and minors under the age of 12. Moreover, as early as April 2010, Whitney used the CSAM he downloaded to create projects in which he photoshopped prepubescent, naked minor females into photographs around his residence and narrated a sexual encounter between himself and the minor victims. Whitney also used the file‑sharing service to seek out and download obscene, computer‑generated material depicting, among other scenes, the abduction of a child from a playground and subsequent rape of that minor.

Whitney is scheduled to be sentenced on January 12, 2024. He faces a mandatory minimum of 5 years in prison and a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment for each charge. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office Criminal Division, made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles accepted the plea.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel L. Rothberg and Assistant U.S. Attorney Vanessa Strobbe are prosecuting the case.

The forensic examiners of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section’s High Technology Investigative Unit provided significant assistance in this case.

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 U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the 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.justice.gov/psc.

This case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. The task force is composed of FBI agents, along with other federal agents and detectives from northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. The task force is charged with investigating and bringing federal charges against individuals engaged in the exploitation of children and those engaged in human trafficking.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:23-cr-124.