In a disturbing case of child exploitation, 37-year-old Paul Hearty of Rochester, New York, was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison and 15 years of supervised release for knowingly possessing child pornography. The harsh sentence was handed down by United States District Judge Frank P. Geraci, Jr. after Hearty pleaded guilty to the felony charge.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany H. Lee, the investigation into Hearty’s activities began in December 2010 when the New York State Police’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received information that an AOL user was sending child pornography to an account used by a particular Internet Protocol address. The subscriber of the Internet Protocol address was identified as Hearty, residing at Alexander Street, in the City of Rochester.
A search warrant was executed by New York State Police in April 2011, and images of child pornography were found on Hearty’s Samsung smartphone. This discovery came nearly six years after Hearty was convicted in Monroe County of the Possession of an Obscene Sexual Performance By A Child Less Than 16 Years Old in 2005. Hearty was required to register as a sex offender following his conviction.
The case against Hearty was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.
The sentence was the culmination of an investigation on the part of the United States Homeland Security Investigations under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James Spero, the New York State Police Computer Crimes Unit under the direction of Captain Frank Pace, and the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office under the direction of Sandra Doorley.
Hearty’s sentence serves as a stark reminder of the devastating consequences of child pornography possession. As the nation continues to grapple with the issue of child exploitation, it is crucial that those who commit these heinous crimes are held accountable and brought to justice.
Project Safe Childhood can be found at www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
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