Project Safe Childhood
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a Springfield, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for producing child pornography.
David Albert, 50, of Springfield, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips to 17 years and six months in federal prison without parole.
On March 11, 2015, Albert pleaded guilty to the sexual exploitation of a child.
A special agent with Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Portland, Maine, discovered a posting on an Internet chat service in October 2014 that offered “trading and sharing" of child pornography. The agent identified Albert, who sent him a pornographic image of an 11-year-old female, as the person responsible for posting the advertisement.
Local law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Albert’s residence on Oct. 3, 2014. They seized a laptop computer that contained multiple images of child pornography and a cell phone, both of which have been forfeited to the government. Albert was not present in the home at the time the investigators executed the warrant, but was later located at his place of employment. He admitted that he had taken the photo of the 11-year-old victim with his cell phone.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James J. Kelleher. It was investigated by the Southwest Missouri Cybercrimes Task Force, Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Springfield, Mo., Police Department.
Project Safe Childhood
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.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
