Dallas man pleads guilty to sending child pornography images over the Internet

DALLAS – A local man pleaded guilty on Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Renee Harris Toliver to one count of transporting and shipping child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.

Jeffrey Wayne Day, 24, of Dallas, who has been in federal custody since his arrest early last month on related charges outlined in a criminal complaint, faces a statutory sentence of not less than five or more than 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and up to a lifetime of supervised release. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 12 by U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey.

According to the complaint, a Dallas Police Department detective, who was investigating individuals involved in sharing child pornography via a peer-to-peer network, found several files indicative of child pornography that were traced to Day. More specifically, on Jan. 24, 2011, the detective identified a computer that had 3,675 files for sharing of which 469 files contained child pornography. In March 2011 a search warrant was executed at Day's residence and a forensic examination of the computer equipment seized revealed more than 20,000 images and videos of child pornography. Day admitted that he possessed videos and images that included bondage and other sadistic acts involving minors.

The Dallas Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) are investigating.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks, Northern District of Texas, is in charge of the prosecution.

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders, and child sex traffickers.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE or its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.