James Andrew Whitney, Child Exploitation, Virginia 2024

A Fairfax man was sentenced to seven years in prison for downloading millions of images and videos of child exploitation, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and computer-generated videos depicting the violent rape of children.

James Andrew Whitney, 62, sought out and downloaded video and image files depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including material depicting prepubescent minors and minors under the age of 12.

Using technology to conceal his identity, Whitney collected millions of images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of children. Whitney also downloaded thousands of computer-generated images depicting the same. Among the downloaded computer-generated materials was a video featuring the abduction of a child from a playground, followed by the sadomasochistic rape of the child.

As early as April 2010, Whitney also used the CSAM he downloaded to create projects in which he photoshopped prepubescent, naked minor females into photographs around his residence and narrated sexual encounters between himself and the minor victims.

Whitney pleaded guilty on September 11, 2023, to charges that he possessed and received CSAM and that he received obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children. The investigation showed that Whitney downloaded CSAM for at least 15 years, and investigators ultimately recovered more than five terabytes (TB) of CSAM from his electronic devices.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel L. Rothberg and Assistant U.S. Attorney Vanessa Strobbe prosecuted the case. The forensic examiners of the High Technology Investigative Unit of the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) provided significant assistance in this case.

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

The case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. The task force is composed of FBI agents, along with other federal agents and detectives from northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. The task force is charged with investigating and bringing federal charges against individuals engaged in the exploitation of children and those engaged in human trafficking.