Fort Worth man sentenced to more than 8 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography

FORT WORTH, Texas – A local man was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge John McBryde to more than eight years in federal prison following his guilty plea to possessing child pornography.

This investigation was conducted by the Fort Worth Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Richard D. Anderson, 59, of Fort Worth, Texas, has been in custody since he pleaded guilty in March. This 97-month prison sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.

According to documents filed in this case, in September 2012, officers with the Fort Worth Police ICAC Unit executed a search warrant at Anderson’s home and seized computers and removable storage media. A forensic exam of these seized items revealed images and videos of child pornography. Anderson admitted he had downloaded images of child pornography from the Internet using newsgroups, and that he had transferred images from his computer to his flash drive.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Aisha Saleem, Northern District of Texas, prosecuted this case.

The investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide HSI initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders and child sex traffickers. HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423 or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-843-5678.

HSI is a founding member and current chair of the Virtual Global Taskforce, an international alliance of law enforcement agencies and private industry sector partners working together to prevent and deter online child sexual abuse.