High Point Man Sentenced on Child Pornography Charge

GREENSBORO, N.C. – An individual who pleaded guilty to receipt of child pornography was sentenced yesterday, announced Sandra J. Hairston, Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina. 

ROBERT EDWARD ABELL III, 35, of High Point, North Carolina, pleaded guilty on August 14, 2017, to one count of receipt of child pornography.  He was sentenced by United States District Judge Catherine C. Eagles to 262 months imprisonment followed by lifetime supervised release.  ABELL was previously convicted of taking Indecent Liberties with a Child in Guilford County in 2005.

Investigators searched ABELL’s apartment on March 8, 2016, after observing that someone using ABELL’s IP address was sharing child pornography via a peer-to-peer network.  They found child pornography files depicting prepubescent children being sexually molested and peer-to-peer software on ABELL’s computer.

This case was investigated by members of the North Carolina Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, including the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the High Point Police Department.

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 online child sexual exploitation and abuse.  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.

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