DALLAS - A computer repairman from Dallas was sentenced this morning following his guilty plea in January 2013 to a felony child pornography offense, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.
Andrew McMahon, 37, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Reed C. O’Connor to 15 years in federal prison to be followed by a five-year term of supervised release. McMahon pleaded guilty to an information charging one count of transportation of child pornography; he has been in custody since he entered that plea.
According to documents filed in the case, during an undercover investigation to identify persons using peer-to-peer file-sharing networks to distribute child pornography, a special agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) identified a computer with more than 300 files available for sharing that had files names indicative of child pornography.
A search warrant was executed at McMahon’s residence in Dallas in October 2012, and ICE HSI special agents seized a significant amount of computer equipment and related storage media, including 45 hard drives. McMahon admitted he used the internet and peer-to-peer file-sharing networks to view, download and distribute child pornography. He also admitted that he had more than 600 images and videos available to share on his file-sharing program. He advised that he had been downloading child pornography since the 1990’s.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative, which was launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/. For more information about internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/ and click on the tab “resources."
ICE HSI investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks prosecuted.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
