Ocean Springs Man Pleads Guilty to Accessing the Internet with the Intent to View Child Pornography

Gulfport, Mississippi. – Steven Dedual, Jr., 45, of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, pled guilty in United States District Court to accessing the internet with the intent to view child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst and Special Agent in Charge Raymond R. Parmer Jr. of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in New Orleans.

From November 2015 through May 2016, Steven Dedual, Jr., through the use of computers in Gulfport and Ocean Springs, Mississippi, accessed the internet as a user of a file-sharing network, with the intent to view visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, including visual depictions of a minor who had not attained 12 years of age.

Dedual will be sentenced on February 9, 2018, at 9:00 a.m., by U. S. District Judge Sul Ozerden, and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and a lifetime of supervised release.

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Jones.