Virginia Man Gets 20 Years for Child Pornography Ring

A Manassas man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in a child pornography ring that spanned across the Philippines.

Dwayne Stinson, 53, a communications technician, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady for producing and distributing child pornography, announced Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski, U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Lechleitner of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C.

According to court documents, from at least October 2011 until February 2012, Stinson used an electronic payment service to pay women in the Philippines to sexually abuse children while he directed the abuse. He admitted that some of the children were as young as six or seven years old.

The defendant contemporaneously produced numerous screenshot images of the abuse and stored them on his computer for years. In addition to his prison sentence, Stinson was also sentenced to 10 years of supervised release.

HSI investigated the case with assistance from the Prince William County Police Department and Northern Virginia/District of Columbia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Trial Attorney James E. Burke IV of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Whitney Russell of the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.

This case 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. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and 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.justice.gov/psc.