Police officer pleads guilty to possession of child pornography

Police officer guilty of child pornography

Officer David Courtney Childers, Horny County

Not even police officers get away with possessing images of children having sex.  David Courtney Childeers, a Horny County police officer, pled guilty to possession of child pornography.  He is awaiting sentencing.

The FBI went into action against a guy who likes to share his collection of kiddy porn after a June 2008, undercover operation revealed him as a suspect.  Childers and other perpetrators used peer to peer sharing to trade their dirty little secrets.

Peer to peer sharing, or p2p, is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, songs and pictures, from one computer user to another without necessarily posting it on the net for all to see. Popular file sharing programs include gnutella http://wiki.limewire.org/index.php?title=GDF, gnutella2 or g2 http://g2.trillinux.org/index.php?title=Main_Page, emulehttp://download.cnet.com/eMule/3000-2196_4-10225243.html?tag=mncol;lst, Kaza  http://www.kazaa.com/and Bit Torrent  http://www.bittorrent.com/btusers/what-is-bittorrent

Peer to peer file sharing may be implemented in a variety of storage, transmission, and distribution models. Common methods are manual sharing using removable media, centralized computer file server installations on computer networks, World Wide Web-based hyperlinked documents, and the use of distributed peer-to-peer (P2P) networking.

"P2P sharing is perfectly legal" 

P2p sahring is perfectly legal.  However, it has been frequently used for illegal means.  One of the most famous cases was Napster, sharing music for free which was subject to copyright.  Child porn users have been p2p of late in order to trade their fare with less risk of getting caught.

  "Contact was made with a suspected perp who was offering to share his collection of child porn"

Illinois FBI agents went undercover using the identification of a known and trusted child pornographer.  Contact was made with a suspected perp who was offering to share his collection of child porn.  Agents downloaded the child pornography, and traced the communication back to officer Childers. 
 
Shortly thereafter the officers had officer Childers in custody along with his computer.  A brief search of the computer memory revealed the kiddy porn.  It was also quickly determined that Childers was a member of law enforcement and employed as a police officer with Horry County.

The office of United States Attorney Kevin F. McDonald issued a press release stating that they got one of the bad guys.  Childers pled guilty in federal court to possession of child pornography, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2252A(a)(5)(B). Assistant United States Attorney William E. Day, II, of the Florence office handled the case.

United States District Judge R. Bryan Harwell accepted the plea and will sentence Childers at a later date.  The maximum penalty Childers can receive is a fine of $250,000.00 and imprisonment for 10 years.  Possession of child pornography and trading it on the net, even with a degree of privacy, is illegal.  Those fighting the exploitation of a minor and kiddy porn have won another round.