Indianapolis Man Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Child Pornography

According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice, a 57-year-old Indianapolis man was sentenced to 10 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Larry J. McKinney for possession of child pornography.

Thomas Lane pleaded guilty on January 3 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in Indianapolis to a count of possession of child pornography.

Evidence showed that Lane had photos and binders full of images of children engaged in explicit sexual acts. Many of the images were printed out and contained watermarks of website addresses on them. The press release mentions that Lane was previously convicted for the receipt of child pornography in 1998.

In addition to the 10 years in prison, Judge McKinney ordered a lifetime of supervised release once Lane got out of prison.

The press release says that Lane was mainly taken down by a joint investigation of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC). The ICAC is made up of members of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Indiana State Police, the Indianapolis Police Department, and the Kokomo Police Department. The case itself was prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice. Forensic evidence and investigation was performed by the Kokomo Police Department and the Department of Justice High Tech Investigative Unit.

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales created Project Safe Childhood, which was made to protect children from online sexual predators. This case was a part of Project Safe Childhood.

In a speech about Project Safe Childhood's training program, Attorney Gonzales described some of their methods for finding child predators: "Investigators are often aided by the foolishness of thieves, for example. Rarely so with the pedophile. He is often very smart. He studies his victims. He looks for places where children gather and times where they are vulnerable to attack or enticement. He learns their habits and weaknesses and plans accordingly. Or, if the target is within the predator's own home, as is often and sadly the case, he knows how to conceal the sexual abuse from his neighbors"

Gonzales concluded the speech, saying, "I find hope in the unexpected. When even juvenile delinquents are helping to catch pedophiles and predators, we can't help but be inspired to press on in this battle that can be very difficult ... but that I believe defines justice."

The U.S. Department of Justice's Fact Sheet for Project Safe Childhood mentions various statistics. In the fiscal year of 2005, 1,447 child pornography cases were prosecuted by federal prosecutors. These involved a total of 1,503 defendants. In 2006 the Department of Justice awarded the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force $14 million.

Sources:

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-20-2007/0004629742&EDATE=

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2006/February/06_opa_081.html

http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/speeches/2007/ag_speech_070213.html