Virginia man sentenced in Pennsylvania to 102 months in prison for engaging in child exploitation enterprise
PITTSBURGH - Ryan Chiles of Hampton, Va., was sentenced Feb. 11, 2011, in the Western District of Pennsylvania to 102 months in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for engaging in a child exploitation enterprise, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania David J. Hickton and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge John P. Kelleghan.
Chiles, 22, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Arthur J. Schwab on July 14, 2010, to one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise. According to court documents and proceedings, Chiles and others distributed images and videos of children being sexually abused to other members of an international group that had restricted membership and was formed on a social networking website. Members of the group distributed to one another thousands of sexually explicit images and videos of children, many of which graphically depicted prepubescent, male children, including some infants, being sexually abused and sometimes sodomized or subjected to bondage.
This case was investigated by HSI in Pittsburgh and the High Technology Investigative Unit of the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS). Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig W. Haller of the Western District of Pennsylvania and CEOS Trial Attorney Andrew McCormack prosecuted the case.
HSI's involvement in this investigation is part of the agency's national initiative known as Operation Predator, an ongoing enforcement effort targeting those who prey upon and sexually exploit our nation's children-including Internet pornographers, international sex tourists, and foreign national sexual predators.
ICE encourages the reporting of suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. This hotline is 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 ICE partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.
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