LAFAYETTE, La. - Acting U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook announced today that a man from Rayne was sentenced to 17 and a half years in prison for taking video and photographs of a juvenile girl and sending them to his laptop.
Raylin Richard, 37, of Rayne, La., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth E. Foote on one count of transportation of child pornography using any means or facility in interstate commerce. The court also sentenced him to 15 years of supervised release, fined him $20,000 and requires him to register as sex offender. According to the March 7, 2017 guilty plea, the mother of a juvenile found sexually explicit videos and images of her daughter on Richard’s cell phone on May 16, 2015. Acadia Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies took possession of the phone and found that Richard had taken the video and images while he lived in Crowley, La. After further investigation, Richard’s MacBookAir was searched and the same videos and images were found there as well. Richard later admitted that he knowingly transported the video and images from his phone on April 2, 2015 to his computer.
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.
Those concerned may also leave tips with the FBI at tips.fbi.gov. Tips may be submitted anonymously. The Lafayette FBI office number is (337) 233-2164.
The FBI and the Acadia Parish Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert C. Abendroth and John Luke Walker prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
