FRANKFORT, KY – A Lawrenceburg, Ky., man, Zachary Gage King, 24, was sentenced on Monday by U.S. District Judge Gregory VanTatenhove to 151 months in prison for receiving a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
According to his plea agreement, law enforcement received information that King was attempting to access child pornography materials, and a search warrant was obtained for King’s residence. King admitted to law enforcement that he had utilized numerous online platforms to receive and distribute child sexual abuse material and that he had received child sexual abuse material as recently as the day before the search warrant. A forensic examination of King’s electronic devices found over 7,400 images and videos that included minors engaged in sexually explicit activity.
Under federal law, King must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence. Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for 40 years.
Paul McCaffrey, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Rana Saoud, Special Agent in Charge, Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Phillip J. Burnett, Jr., Commissioner of the Kentucky State Police; and Sheriff Mike Coyle, Madison County Sheriff’s Office, jointly announced the sentence.
The investigation was conducted by HSI, KSP, and Madison County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Roth is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted this case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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 to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
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