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Rincon Man Sentenced to 78 Months in Prison for Possession of Child Pornography
SAVANNAH, GA—Edmund A. Booth, Jr., United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, announced that Charles Patrick, age 62, of Rincon, Georgia, was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison and a fine of $ 4,000 on February 9, 2009, by Chief U.S. District Judge William T. Moore, Jr. Patrick earlier pled guilty to possession of child pornography in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2252A(a)(5)(B).
During Patrick’s change-of-plea and sentencing hearings, the evidence established that Patrick purchased a subscription to a child pornography website in October 2006. After Patrick was identified as a subscriber to that website during the course of a national child pornography investigation, federal law enforcement agents asked Patrick for an interview. Patrick falsely told the agents that he was out of town. He then immediately purchased a brand new computer from Best Buy in Savannah, traveled to his home in Rincon, and unplugged and stored his old computer in his garage. Agents found that computer in the garage during a search of Patrick’s home that same night. On the computer, they discovered over 1100 images of child pornography in unallocated space (where files remain on the computer even after being manually deleted by the user or automatically deleted by computer process). The images included sexually-explicit pictures of prepubescent children and sadistic and violent sexual conduct against those children.
Booth stated that there is no parole from a federal sentence, and Patrick will serve at least 85 percent of the sentence imposed, if he earns credit for good time served. Following Patrick’s release from prison, he will be placed under the supervision of the United States Probation Office for a term of twenty years. During the term of supervision, Patrick will be prohibited from having unsupervised contact with children, will be restricted in his use of computers and the Internet, and will be required to participate in sex offender treatment.
Booth praised the efforts of Special Agent Josh Hayes of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Special Agent Tom West of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The United States was represented by Assistant United States Attorney R. Brian Tanner.
Booth commented that this case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, which is a nationwide U.S. Department of Justice initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet and to identify and rescue child victims.
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