Maryland man admits to repeatedly sexually abusing a child to produce child pornography

BALTIMORE — A 38-year-old Dundalk, Md., man pleaded guilty Monday to sexually exploiting a minor on at least five occasions to produce images of child pornography.

The guilty plea follows an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the FBI and the Baltimore County Police Department, with the assistance of the Baltimore County State Attorney's Office.

Larry James Kerfoot must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

According to Kerfoot's plea agreement, on May 30, 2012, an undercover Baltimore County detective downloaded video depicting child pornography from an Internet file made available by Kerfoot from his Dundalk home. Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant June 27, 2012, at his home and seized computers and digital media containing 19 videos and 80 images of child pornography that Kerfoot had received from the Internet.

Officers also seized a video he had produced of a 12-year-old girl whom he had coerced to engage in sexually explicit conduct with him on at least five occasions.

Kerfoot faces between 25 and 30 years in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release at his Nov. 7 sentencing before U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander.

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.

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 www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the "resources" tab on the left of the page.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Judson T. Mihok.