Source: United States Attorneys General
Headline: Pineville man sentenced to 30 months in prison for possessing child pornography online
ALEXANDRIA, La. – United States Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook announced that a Pineville man was sentenced last week to two and a half years in prison for using an online storage site to house child pornography.
Brandon McNamara, 26, of Pineville, La., was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Dee D. Drell on one count of possession of child pornography. He was also sentenced to five years of supervised release and is required to register as a sex offender. According to the August 28, 2017 guilty plea, Canadian law enforcement agents arrested a resident of British Columbia in 2016 for online child pornography distribution. Canadian agents identified McNamara’s online alias as one of 57 different users exchanging child pornography with the Canadian defendant. Canadian agents alerted U.S. law enforcement, and McNamara was questioned on December 9, 2016. He admitted to possessing images of child pornography and said they were being stored on an online storage account.
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 and the Vancouver Royal Canadian Mounted Police conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jamilla A. Bynog and David J. Ayo prosecuted the case.