Benjamin Walter, Child Pornography Production and Distribution, Alabama 2021

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Alabama Man Sentenced to 160 Years for Soliciting Child Abuse Videos

A 41-year-old Alabama man has been sentenced to 160 years in prison for using the internet to seek videos and live transmissions of the violent sexual abuse of Filipina children as young as five years old.

Benjamin Walter, of Decatur, was convicted by a federal jury in October 2021 of four counts of producing and attempting to produce child pornography and one count each of receiving and distributing child pornography.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Walter used two web service provider accounts, including messenger and webcam applications, to seek women in the Philippines to sexually abuse their own children and relatives. He made requests that spanned approximately three years, including directions to arrange for the gang rape of young children and to sexually assault several young children in other harmful ways.

Walter sent money to the Philippines for the videos, images, and live transmissions via Moneygram, Western Union, and other money remitters in $25 to $50 increments. In addition to the live webcam shows, Walter also sent and received emails to which the senders attached images and videos of young children engaged in sex acts with adult men.

The FBI’s Huntsville Field Office investigated the case, which was part of a joint FBI and Homeland Security Investigations operation targeting the buyers and sellers of webcam shows in the Philippines. Trial Attorneys Charles Schmitz and Nadia Prinz of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Leann White of the Northern District of Alabama are prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006. The project 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.

The public is urged to report any suspected cases of child exploitation to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) or cybertip.org.