FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC or
MARCIA MURPHY at 410-209-4885
NOVEMBER 29, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TALBOT COUNTY CHILD ABUSER PLEADS GUILTY TO FEDERAL CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGE
Case Highlights ‘Extreme Danger’ Internet-Using Pedophiles Pose to Children
Baltimore, Maryland - Steven Douglass Buckley, age 37, of Cordova, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to attempted receipt of child pornography, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.
“This case demonstrates the extreme danger that children face from pedophiles who use the internet,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “Even after he was arrested for child molestation, Steven Buckley continued to use the internet to collect child pornography and make plans to attack more children. He believed that the children he victimized would not be effective witnesses against him in court. Hopefully this federal felony conviction, in addition to the state criminal convictions, will finally stop Steven Buckley from creating more victims of child sex abuse.”
According to the statement of facts presented to the court as part of his guilty plea, Buckley traded images of child pornography beginning in 2002 or earlier. Buckley also traded child pornography on the internet and chatted with a person with whom he traded child pornography about using an untraceable vehicle to abduct a young girl off the streets in order to sexually abuse her.
Federal agents conducting an undercover investigation assumed the identity of the person with whom Buckley was having on-line chats beginning in June 2005, without Buckley’s knowledge. In the course of their conversations with Buckley, he revealed that he had been charged with sexual molestation and discussed the possibility of having the 11 year old victim of his sexual abuse take the stand and “making her sweat.”
In on-line conversations on June 15 and August 7, 2005, Buckley requested that the person send him child pornography, because his collection had been given to a friend for safekeeping until the charges against him had been settled. Buckley later pleaded guilty to a third degree sex offense in Anne Arundel County related to the molestation of the 11 year old girl and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Additional investigation identified another victim whom Buckley had raped when the victim was 11 years old. Buckley pleaded guilty to the rape on June 6, 2006, in Talbot County Circuit Court and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with 10 years suspended.
Buckley faces a minimum mandatory sentence of five years, and a maximum of 20 years in prison followed by supervised release for life on the federal charge for attempted receipt of child pornography. U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake has scheduled sentencing for February 29, 2008 at 10:00 a.m.
This case is being brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In February 2006, the Department of Justice launched Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices, 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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Maryland State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for their investigative work. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Talbot County State’s Attorney Scott G. Patterson and Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Frank Weathersbee for the assistance provided by their offices and commended Assistant U.S. Attorney Tamera L. Fine, who is prosecuting the case.