A Belleville man pled guilty in federal court on Aug. 30, 2013, to Possession of Visual Depictions of Minors Engaged in Sexually Explicit Conduct, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced today. Terel D. Noble, a/k/a ARelman,@ 30, faces a term in prison of not more than ten years, a fine up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of five years to life when he is sentenced. Noble also agreed to forfeit the computer which contained the visual depictions. In addition, upon his release from prison, Noble must register as a sex offender as a condition of his supervised release. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 20, 2013, in East St. Louis, Illinois.
The investigation began on Dec. 19, 2011, when an individual contacted the Belleville Police Department to report that he/she had seen images of a partially nude underage girl on Noble’s computer. The individual said that, when he/she accidentally opened the file, Noble “freaked" out and immediately closed the file. When confronted, Noble stated that he thought he had erased all of them.
The next day, Dec. 20, 2011, law enforcement officers went to where Noble lived at the time and seized his Hewlett Packard laptop computer. A forensic analysis revealed approximately 137 visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct under the user name “Relman."
In a voluntary interview, Noble admitted possession of the visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, stating that it was a “phase" he was going through.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 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."
The case was investigated by the Belleville, Illinois, Police Department, Collinsville, Illinois, Police Department, the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Springfield Child Exploitation Task Force (SCETF). The case is assigned to Assistant United States Attorney Angela Scott.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
