Fayetteville, Arkansas - Kenneth Elser, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, announced that Richard Blaine Gamblin, age 22, of Springdale, was sentenced to 72 months in federal prison and ten (10) years of supervised release on one count of Knowing Receipt of Child Pornography. The sentencing hearing took place before the Honorable Timothy L. Brooks in the United States District Court in Fayetteville.
According to the Plea Agreement, in April of 2016, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children notified Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce (ICAC) that an individual residing in Northwest Arkansas uploaded images of child pornography to an online storage account. A federal search warrant was executed at the home of Richard Gamblin. During the execution of the warrant, law enforcement seized multiple digital devices that contained child pornography. At that time, Gamblin admitted to owning the seized equipment and to using it to download child pornography. A subsequent forensic examination of his computer revealed in excess of 100 videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Gamblin was indicted by a federal grand jury in May, 2016 and pleaded guilty to the charge in July, 2016.
The investigation was led by Homeland Security Investigations, the Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce and the Springdale Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Dustin Roberts prosecuted the case for the United States.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and their Criminal Division Child Exploitation and Obscenity Sections (CEOS), 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 to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
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Related court documents may be found on Public Access to Electronic Records Website @www.Pacer.gov