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U.S. Department of Justice PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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Maryland man sentenced to 7 years in prison for transferring child pornography via the internet
Washington, D.C. - A 47-year-old man from Leonardtown, Maryland, Robert M.
Cromwell, has been sentenced to serve 84 months in prison for transferring child pornography over the internet in 2005, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today.
Cromwell received his sentence on Friday, November 3, 2006, before the Honorable Rosemary M. Collyer after pleading guilty in July 2006 to Transporting or Shipping Material Involving the Sexual Exploitation of Minors and Possessing Material Constituting or Containing Child Pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§2252(a)(1) and 2252(a)4)(B).
According to the government’s evidence, between February and May 2005, while the defendant was living in Washington, D.C. and Leonardtown, Maryland, he engaged in several conversations with an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation working in an undercover capacity while the two were logged into a member-created internet chat room that discussed sex with children between the ages of 2 and 12 years old. During those conversations, the defendant on four occasions transferred to the undercover officer videos and images that depicted young girls engaging in sexually explicit conduct. In September 2005, during a search of the defendant’s Maryland residence, FBI agents recovered a computer whose hard drive stored well over 600 images and movie files of child pornography. The children depicted in these pornographic images ranged in age from infants to teenagers. An analysis of the images transferred by the defendant and recovered from his computer was conducted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and revealed that at least 91 images were of identified child victims of sexual exploitation.
This case is being brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In February 2006, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.
In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor commended the work of Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agents Steven Forrest of the Buffalo Field Office, who conducted the undercover investigation, and Ashton Koo of the Washington Field Office, who spearheaded the local investigation. He also thanked the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office and the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office for their assistance with the search and arrest. Finally, he commended Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven Dunne and Donna Sanger of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Maryland for their assistance with the search and with the Rule 20 transfer of the Maryland charge, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Schmidt, who prosecuted the case.
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