CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Sean C. Hammond, 29, of Monroe, N.C. was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn, Jr. to 72 months in prison on child pornography charges, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Hammond was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release and to register as a sex offender.
Nick Annan, Special Agent in Charge of ICE/Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Georgia and the Carolinas joins U.S. Attorney Rose in making today’s announcement.
According to court documents and information introduced at the sentencing hearing, on March 27, 2015, law enforcement became aware that an individual, later identified as Hammond, was sharing child pornography on the Internet using a peer-to-peer network. During subsequent searches, law enforcement seized Hammond’s electronic devices, including a computer and a cellphone. Forensic analyses of those devices revealed that Hammond possessed more than 700 images and 67 videos of child pornography, some of which depicted prepubescent minors engaging in sexual conduct.
Hammond pleaded guilty in November 2016 to one count of receipt and one count of possession of child pornography. He is currently in federal custody and will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.
U.S. Attorney Rose thanked HSI for their investigation of this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimlani Ford of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte was in charge of the prosecution.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice, aimed at combating the growing online sexual exploitation of children. By combining resources, federal, state and local agencies are better able to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue those victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
