Goodwin: “another Pedophile Off The Streets”

Wyoming County man admits collecting child pornography, pleads guilty to federal crime

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – “We’ve taken another pedophile off the streets,” U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin announced today, in the wake of a Wyoming County man’s federal guilty plea on child pornography charges. David Walter Martin, Jr., 40, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on March 26, 2013, before United States District Judge Irene C. Berger in Beckley. Martin admitted he collected more than 600 pictures and videos of children having sex or performing sexual acts. The child pornography was found on Martin’s computers after he downloaded it from the Internet.

“This kind of crime is utterly revolting,” Goodwin said. “Behind every piece of child pornography traded over the Internet, there is a child somewhere who has been exploited in the most heinous way imaginable. People who download these pictures encourage that exploitation, and I will be relentless in prosecuting them.”

Martin faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced on August 1, 2013. 
The Mullens Police Department, the Wyoming County Sheriff’s Department, and the West Virginia State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force conducted the investigation.  Assistant United States Attorney Lisa Johnston is in charge of the prosecution. 

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 http://www.justice.gov/usao/wvs/PSCpage.html.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and follow the link named “Resources.”