LAFAYETTE, La. - Acting U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook announced that a man from Youngsville pleaded guilty Wednesday to receiving sexually explicit material from a minor and then asking her travel to Louisiana.
Gary Joseph Vincent, 25, of Youngsville, La., pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick Hanna to one count of receiving child pornography. The plea will become final when accepted by U.S. District Judge S. Maurice Hicks Jr. According to the guilty plea, Vincent admitted that he received a sexually explicit image via the internet of a minor female who lived in another state on Dec. 17, 2015. Vincent also asked the minor to travel to Louisiana, but law enforcement agents intercepted the minor before she could make the trip.
Vincent faces five to 20 years in prison, five years to life of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.
This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood combines federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) also encourage the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at (866) 347-2423. Investigators are available at all hours to answer hotline calls. Tips or other information can also be submitted to ICE online by visiting their website at www.ice.gov/exec/forms/hsi-tips/tips.asp or through the Operation Predator smartphone application www.ice.gov/predator/smartphone-app. Tips may be submitted anonymously.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Louisiana State Police and Chatham Police Department in Illinois conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Luke Walker and Dominic Rossetti are prosecuting the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
