Harrisburg Man Charged With Possession Of Child Pornography

HARRISBURG - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Robert L. Hayes, Sr., age 74, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was indicted on April 17, 2019, by a federal grand jury on child pornography charges.

According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, the indictment alleges that Hayes possessed images of prepubescent minors under the age of 12 years old on October 16, 2018 and November 20, 2018, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  Hayes was on federal Supervised Release after pleading guilty to a similar federal child exploitation case in 2007. 

The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the U.S. Probation Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith Taylor is prosecuting the 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 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."

Indictments are only allegations. All persons charged are presumed to be innocent unless and until found guilty in court.

A sentence following a finding of guilt is imposed by the Judge after consideration of the applicable federal sentencing statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

If convicted of this second offense, Hayes faces a mandatory minimum 10 years imprisonment.  The maximum penalty under federal law for this offense is 20 years of imprisonment, a term of supervised release following imprisonment, and a fine. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the Judge is also required to consider and weigh a number of factors, including the nature, circumstances and seriousness of the offense; the history and characteristics of the defendant; and the need to punish the defendant, protect the public and provide for the defendant's educational, vocational and medical needs. For these reasons, the statutory maximum penalty for the offense is not an accurate indicator of the potential sentence for a specific defendant.

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