U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz sentenced William Villeda, age 22, of Annapolis, Maryland today to four years in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release for possession of child pornography, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. Villeda, a native of El Salvador in the U.S. illegally, will be deported after completing his sentence.
According to court documents, since about August 2006, Villeda downloaded through the Internet hundreds of images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. On two occasions in August and October, 2006 an undercover officer, using file sharing software on-line, located several files on Villeda’s computer containing pornographic images of minors, including toddlers, which Villeda had made available to share on-line. In November 2006, federal officers searched Villeda’s residence and recovered images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct from his computer and several computer disks. Many of the hundreds of sexually explicit images recovered were of three to five year old children.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In February 2006, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales launched Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide 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, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the investigative work performed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel J. Fortune, who is prosecuting the case.