Portland, Ore. — Douglas Charles Sauncy, 24, of Salem, Oregon, was sentenced to 90 months in prison by United States District Court Judge Michael W. Mosman after pleading guilty on July 30, 2007, to one count of distribution of child pornography. Sauncy was also ordered to serve 3 years of supervised release.
Sauncy distributed and received child pornography through the operation of a fileserver he ran on the Internet. He would access an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) server that allowed users to communicate in real time “chat rooms” that are organized by a specific subject matter. The particular “chat room” that was the subject of this case catered to the trading of images depicting the sexual abuse of preteen and early teen girls. Inside this Internet “chat room” the defendant, using the nickname “Trashpile,” advertised that he was offering to trade images and videos.
During the investigation of this case, the case agent downloaded images of child pornography from the “Trashpile” file server and also determined that “Trashpile” had distributed 6,008 files and had received 3,889 files from 382 different unique IP addresses. The “Trashpile” fileserver was visited by people from 22 different countries.
On July 6, 2006, ICE agents executed a federal search warrant at the location hosting the fileserver. A computer used as the “Trashpile” fileserver was seized and later examined by agents. A forensic examination of the defendant’s computer equipment, the host computer for the “Trashpile” fileserver, revealed in excess of 1,461 images and 42 video files of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
The case was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Kerin. The U. S. Attorney’s Office continues to prosecute cases such as these as part of Project Safe Childhood. In February 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s 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.
