A 32-year-old Houston man will spend 15 years in federal prison in a child pornography case, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday.
Cody Wayne Burke pleaded guilty April 15 to receipt and possession of child pornography, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Alamdar S. Hamdani said in a news release.
U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal sentenced Burke to 180 months for both convictions, with the sentences to be served concurrently. At the hearing, the judge heard about the large number of pornographic images found on electronic devices seized during a March 2022 search.
Burke will be ordered to pay restitution, which will be determined later, to identified victims and will be on supervised release the rest of his life after he is released from prison.
He also will have to comply with requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the internet, well as be required to register as a sex offender.
A cybertip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children alerted authorities to Burke’s actions, the news release said. An IP address was found to be uploading child pornography to cloud storage servers, and an investigation led to Burke and his home in Houston, authorities said. Tips can be submitted online at https://report.cybertip.org.
Law enforcement executed a search warrant and seized electronic devices, including cellphones. After an analysis, Burke was found to have 850 images depicting child pornography. The images included prepubescent minors, bondage and bestiality involving minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, the news release said.
He has been and will remain in custody until he is transferred to a U.S Bureau of Prisons facility.
The FBI investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherin Daniel prosecuted.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 to fight child sexual exploitation and abuse.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
