Hutchins Man Sentenced to 80 Years in Federal Prison for Production of Child Pornography

FORT WORTH, Texas — Robert Dion Ables, 40, of Hutchins, Texas, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge John McBryde to 960 months in federal prison, following his guilty plea in March 2017 to one count of receipt of child pornography and two counts of production of child pornography. Today’s announcement was made by U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

Ables has been in custody since his arrest in December 2016 on a related federal criminal complaint.

“The sexual victimization and exploitation of these young girls is profoundly sad,” said U.S. Attorney Parker. “It is also, obviously, a serious crime for which the penalties are justifiably significant.”

According to documents filed in the case, in December 2016, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents conducting a child pornography investigation served a search warrant at Ables’ residence in Hutchins, Texas. Ables acknowledged that, beginning in 2014, while he was living in the Fort Worth and Arlington area, he used social media applications such as Kik messenger on his phone to initiate contact with minor females. During his conversations, Ables convinced these females to send nude photographs of themselves.

At times Ables would coerce these females to send additional sexually explicit images by threatening to expose the female’s pictures on social media such as Facebook.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative, which was 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 Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/. For more information about internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/ and click on the tab “resources.”

The U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Saskatchewan Internet Child Exploitation Unit (ICE) were in charge of the international investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Saleem prosecuted.

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