Marion, Kentucky Man Pleads Guilty To Distributing & Receiving Child Porn

OWENSBORO, Ky. – A Marion, Kentucky, man has pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Joseph McKinley Jr. for distributing and receiving child pornography, announced United States Attorney Russell M. Coleman.

According to the plea agreement, on September 25, 2017, Edward L. Walton, age 31, in Webster County, Kentucky, and elsewhere, knowingly distributed and received child pornography. A federal Grand Jury sitting in Owensboro indicted Walton on the two charges on June 13, 2018.

Walton faces a statutory mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 5 years and supervised release of at least 5 years and up to any number of years, including life.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Seth Hancock, the chief of the Paducah, Kentucky branch office, and was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Kentucky State Police.

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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 www.usdoj.gov/psc.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."