Houston man pleads guilty to distributing child pornography

HOUSTON — A Houston man pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of distributing child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson, Southern District of Texas. U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore accepted the plea at an Oct. 31 hearing in Houston. The investigation was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

The investigation on Peter Kingman Lindsley, 49, began when the Beaumont Police Department, using peer-to-peer software, discovered a computer IP address registered to Peter K. Lindsley of the 1400 block of Richmond Avenue in Houston. Agents with ICE HSI's Cyber Crimes Division assumed the investigation and executed a search warrant at Lindsley's address.

During execution of the search warrant, agents and officers previewed a desktop computer found in Lindsley's bedroom and discovered a large volume of child pornography. A subsequent forensic analysis of the computer resulted in discovering 3,805 digital images and 860 video files that depicted children engaging in lewd exhibitions of genitalia, sexual intercourse and deviant sexual acts. The vast majority of these pictures involved infants.

Lindsley admitted to searching for and downloading child pornography from the Internet, and possessing thousands of images and videos of child pornography.

Lindsley has been in federal custody since his initial appearance on May 25. He will remain in federal custody pending his sentencing, which is set for March 5. He faces a minimum sentence of five years with a maximum of 20 years imprisonment and a maximum fine of $250,000. After he completes any prison term imposed, Lindsley also faces a maximum of life on supervised release, during which the court can impose a number of special conditions designed to protect children and prohibit the use of the Internet. He will also be required to register as a sex offender.

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.

ICE HSI investigated this case with the assistance of the Beaumont Police Department. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Demetrius Bivins, Southern District of Texas, prosecuted the case.