Kentucky man sentenced to 20 years for receiving, possessing thousands of child pornography videos

LEXINGTON, Ky. — A local man, who was convicted of receiving and possessing thousands of child pornography videos, was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in federal prison.

This sentence was jointly announced by the following agency heads: Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Jack Conway, Kentucky Attorney General; and Gary Hartwig, special agent in charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Erik A. Hentzen, 26, of Lexington, was sentenced Sept. 16 by U.S. District Judge Joseph M. Hood to 20 years in federal prison and a lifetime of supervised release. Under federal law, Hentzen will have to serve at least 85 percent of his prison sentence.

The evidence presented at trial in June established that from May 2012 to March 2013 Hentzen downloaded thousands of videos depicting prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

On March 23, 2013, investigators with the Kentucky Attorney General's Office executed a search warrant and seized multiple computers belonging to Hentzen. The computers contained more than 4,000 videos depicting child pornography images.

This investigation began when authorities discovered that Hentzen had stolen the Internet signal of a neighbor in his apartment complex. Authorities later located numerous child pornography videos that had been made available for download over the Internet. Investigators then traced the location of the computer to Hentzen's apartment in downtown Lexington.

This investigation was conducted by the Office of the Attorney General's Cyber Crimes Unit and HSI. The Fort Mitchell Branch of the U.S. Attorney's Office prosecuted this case.

This investigation was conducted under HSI's Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators. Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 10,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children. In fiscal year 2013, more than 2,000 individuals were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative.

HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or by completing 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 & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST.

For additional information about wanted suspected child predators, download HSI's Operation Predator smartphone app or visit the online suspect alerts page.

HSI is a founding member and current chair of the Virtual Global Taskforce, an international alliance of law enforcement agencies and private industry sector partners working together to prevent and deter online child sexual abuse.