WILMINGTON - United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that in federal court today, WILLIAM WALTER BARKER 44, of Kinston, North Carolina pled guilty before Senior United States District Judge James C. Fox to one count of Receipt of Child Pornography, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2252 (a)(2).
According to the investigation, the Freemont Police Chief received a USB thumbdrive found in the Freemont Town Hall Board of Alderman meeting room near where BARKER was sitting during a meeting he attended. BARKER was employed by a CPA firm in Kinston and attended the meeting to present and discuss the town audit. The thumbdrive contained images of child pornography along with other documents belonging to BARKER. Subsequently, a search warrant of BARKER’S residence in Kinston was executed on Nov. 29, 2012. BARKER was home at the time and admitted to possessing a thumb dive that matched the description of the thumb drive found in Freemont’s Town Hall. A laptop computer recovered during the search of BARKER’S home contained over 4,000 images and 100 videos of child pornography.
BARKER faces a sentence of not less than 5 years imprisonment nor more than 20 years imprisonment along with a fine up to $250,000 and up to a lifetime of supervised release at sentencing.
This case is part of the Project Safe Childhood initiative, a national program aimed at ensuring that criminals exploiting children are effectively prosecuted by making full use of all available law enforcement resources at every level.
Investigation of this case was conducted by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the Freemont Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Ethan A. Ontjes prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
