Pittsburgh Man Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Distributing Child Pornography

PITTSBURGH - A resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court to a term of imprisonment of 10 years (120 months), to be followed by 10 years of supervised release, on his conviction of distribution of material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor, United States Attorney Scott W. Brady announced today.

United States District Judge Cathy Bissoon imposed the sentence on Jeffrey E. Goehring, age 46.

According to information presented to the court, on July 3, 2016, Goehring uploaded approximately 13 images of child pornography to a Yahoo Flikr account. After investigators obtained a search warrant for Goehring’s residence, they discovered 111 videos and 862 images depicting child pornography on his electronic devices. Goehring admitted that he has had an addiction to pornography since the 1990s and that he has gradually switched to child pornography in the last 10 years.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Assistant United States Attorney Shanicka L. Kennedy prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation with assistance from the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office conducted the investigation leading to the prosecution of this case.