Slippery Rock Man Sentenced To 9 Years In Prison For Sexually Explicit Videos And Images Of Minors

PITTSBURGH - A Butler County resident has been sentenced in federal court to nine years imprisonment, to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release, on his conviction of receipt and possession of materials depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.

Chief United States District Judge Joy Flowers Conti imposed the sentence on Mark Beres, 54, formerly of Slippery Rock, Pa.

According to information presented to the court, on July 1, 2008, Beres knowingly received visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct by computer and the United States Mail. In addition, or about April 23, 2013, Beres knowingly possessed videos and images in computer graphic files, the production of which involved the use of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

Assistant United States Attorney Jessica Lieber Smolar prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

U.S. Attorney Hickton commended the United States Postal Inspection Service for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Beres.

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.justice.gov/psc.