HARRISBURG, Pa. – A Middletown man was sentenced today in federal court in Harrisburg to 7 years imprisonment for receipt of child pornography.
Steven Alan Shepherd, 30, previously pleaded guilty to the receipt of child pornography in January. Judge John Jones, III, also ordered Shepherd to pay restitution in the amount of $135,000.
The charges resulted from a search of Shepherd’s home on May 1, 2014, where over 21,000 images and 909 video files of child pornography were located and seized. Shepherd received the material via a computer in 2010.
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 growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.
Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.usdoj.gov/psc For more information about internet safety education, please visit http://www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”
