The indictment grew out of the FBI’s Endangered Child Alert Program, a new nationwide initiative to identify and prosecute adults involved in child porn.
The FBI alleges that on Jan. 21, the unidentified defendant transported (and aided and abetted in transporting) over the Internet three images of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
The federal indictment returned by the grand jury in Missouri alleges that at least one of the child porn images involves a prepubescent minor under the age of 12. At least one of the images portrays sadistic, masochistic and violent conduct.
“We have photos of the defendant, and we are asking for the public’s assistance to identify this man,” the Justice Department’s Assistant Attorney General Christopher A. Wray told XBiz.
The defendant, a white male with brown hair weighing between 180 to190 pounds, is pictured in a posting on the FBI’s website
In the FBI’s first three ECAP cases, images of unidentified defendants were also featured on the TV program “America’s Most Wanted.”
All three defendants were recognized by viewers of the television show and are now being prosecuted. Twenty-two victimized children have been identified and saved from further abuse as a result of the ECAP initiative.
“The FBI’s forensic scientists do a fantastic job,” Joan Irvine, the executive director of Adult Sites Against Child Pornography, told XBiz. “Their forensic people go through pictures to see if they can identify the person. They look at mirrors, eyes for reflections. They do major forensics on the images and put together a composite picture” of the suspect.
Irvine said that since March, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of child porn reports made to ASACP.
In the six to nine months prior to March, 4,000 reports were made per month to ASACP’s online hotline. However, since then, the number of monthly reports has risen to 5,000, Irvine said.