Le Center Man Sentenced For Receiving Child Pornography

MINNEAPOLIS—Late yesterday in federal court, a 47-year-old Le Center man was sentenced for receiving several videos containing child pornography. On August 28, 2013, United States District Judge David S. Doty sentenced Harold Duane Davenport to 60 months in prison on one count of receipt of child pornography. Davenport was indicted on November 5, 2012, and pleaded guilty on March 20, 2013.

In his plea agreement, Davenport admitted that from September 16, 2009, through February 6, 2010, he knowingly received visual depictions via the Internet that involved minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. In addition, Davenport admitted that he possessed more than 600 images of child pornography, including images and videos portraying sadistic or masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence.

This case was the result of an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the LeSueur County Sheriff’s Office, and the Minneapolis Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan P. Petterson.

Receipt of child pornography is against the law. In addition to prosecuting these cases, the Justice Department is presently funding a study focused on the correlation between involvement in child pornography and hands-on sexual abuse of children. A 2008 study (The Butner Study) published in the Journal of Family Violence found that up to 80 percent of federal inmates incarcerated for possession, receipt, or distribution of child pornography also admitted to hands-on sexual abuse of children, ranging from touching to rape.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), 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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and identify and rescue victims. For more information about PSC, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/ For more information about internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/resources.html and click on the tab “resources.”