Registered Fort Worth Sex Offender Sentenced to 40 Years in Federal Prison for Producing Child Pornography

FORT WORTH, Texas — A registered sex offender, living in Fort Worth, Texas, who pleaded guilty to a two-count indictment charging child pornography offenses, was sentenced today, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

Mark Anthony Pape, 24, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means to 40 years in federal prison.  He pleaded guilty in October 2014 to an indictment charging one count of production of child pornography and one count of committing this offense as a registered sex offender.  Pape has been in federal custody since his arrest in April 2014 in San Marcos, Texas, on a related federal criminal complaint. 

According to documents filed in the case, on approximately April 9, 2014, officers with the Fort Worth Police Department executed a search warrant at Pape’s residence in Fort Worth and seized computer media and a cell phone.  A forensic examination of the phone revealed a video depicting Pape and a prepubescent female, approximately six-years-old, engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  The video was taken in Pape’s home in February 2014.

The investigation was initiated when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a cyber-tip regarding an individual who had uploaded an image, containing suspected child pornography, to the Internet.  The investigation led to the identification of Pape, a registered sex offender. 

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 Fort Worth Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated.  Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Saleem prosecuted.

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