Seattle-area man receives 15 years for production, possession of child pornography
SEATTLE — A Mountlake Terrace man was sentenced in federal court Aug. 12 to 15 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for production and possession of child pornography.
David Stephens, 51, was first identified by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in February 2015 for sharing images of child rape and abuse over a peer-to-peer file sharing network. HSI agents executed a court-authorized search warrant on Stephens’ home the following month, seizing electronic devices with thousands of pornographic images, including self-produced photos of his molestation of a young child.
Stephens will be required to register as a sex offender and undergo treatment while in custody and following his release from prison.
Records filed in the case revealed that Stephens was charged with child pornography offenses in 2002 in Snohomish County which were ultimately dismissed due to legal issues. Additionally, the child of a former girlfriend disclosed that Stephens molested her for years, however, no charges were filed in that case. Despite previous encounters with law enforcement, the defendant continued trading images of child sexual abuse and producing images of his molestation of a child left in his care.
“Thanks to the ceaseless efforts of our highly skilled HSI special agents another sexual predator will spend a significant period of time behind bars for ruthlessly violating the innocence of young children,” said Steve Cagen, acting special agent in charge of HSI Seattle.
The charges in this case are a product of Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, and HSI’s Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators.
Led by the U.S. 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 those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.
Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 14,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children. In fiscal year 2015, nearly 2,400 individuals were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative and more than 1,000 victims identified or rescued.
For additional information about wanted suspected child predators, download HSI’s Operation Predator smartphone app or visit the online suspect alerts page.
Updated: