FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC or
MARCIA MURPHY at 410-209-4885
DECEMBER 18, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
VIRGINIA MAN SENTENCED TO OVER 12 YEARS FOR
TRANSPORTATION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
Photos Taken at his Virginia Home and Transported to His Work Computer in Maryland
Greenbelt, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte sentenced Jack T. DuFrain, age 60, of Manassas, Virginia, today to 151 months in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release for transportation of child pornography, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. Judge Messitte also ordered as conditions of his supervised release that Dufrain have no unsupervised contact with minors and that he may not possess a computer without prior approval of the U.S. Probation Office.
According to the plea agreement, in June 2007, DuFrain’s employer in Maryland conducted an internal investigation and discovered child pornography – consisting of still and video images – on Dufrain’s company computer. DuFrain’s computer contained more than 10 video and still images that he recorded of a 12 year old girl engaging in simulated masturbation and sexually explicit poses. The videos were recorded over a period of time dating back to 2005 in a shed located on his property in Virginia. The settings for the videos and still images are staged with makeshift backdrops consisting of what appear to be plastic shower curtains, sheets, tapestries, housing insulation with aluminum foil backing, and curtains. In the videos, DuFrain instructs the girl to pose certain ways and the girl also appears to be directed to change into different outfits. Some of the backdrops and outfits were seized during a search of DuFrain’s property on July 5, 2007. The images were placed on a thumb drive, which DuFrain then transported to his office in Maryland, where he downloaded them onto his work computer.
Also found on DuFrain’s work computer in Maryland were images of the 12 year old girl taken during the photo sessions which had been digitally altered to make them more sexually explicit. Additionally, digitally altered images involving a 14-year-old girl, in which the girl’s face (taken from innocuous pictures) had been inserted into sexually explicit images of prepubescent females, were also found on DuFrain’s work computer.
Authorities have identified the victim and taken steps to protect her.
This case was brought as part of 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 www.projectsafechildhood.gov
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for its investigative work and thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Sartori, who prosecuted the case.