FINAL DEFENDANT SENTENCED TO 7 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR PARTICIPATING IN CHILD PORNOGRAPHY DISTRIBUTION RING

LOS ANGELES – The fifth defendant charged in relation to an Internet-based child pornography trafficking ring that specialized in images depicting the sexual abuse of young girls was sentenced today to seven years in federal prison.

Kevin Kaller Wright, 44, of Santa Monica, received the 84-month sentence from United States District Judge Margaret M. Morrow.

Wright and four other people pleaded guilty over the past year to being members of the Quest4More Internet bulletin board, whose members “advocated the sexual torture of children,” according to court documents. Quest4More, which was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), was a secret bulletin board that allowed members to post and view pictures and videos, which often depicted very young children, sometimes being tortured or in bondage.

The defendants previously sentenced in this case are:

Michael Pharis, 51, of Las Vegas, Nevada, who was sentenced in December to 15 years in prison;

Daniel Murphy, 53, of Millville, New Jersey, who was sentenced in March to 151 months in prison;

Paul Challender, 54 of Big Rapids, Michigan, who was sentenced in March to 151 months in prison; and

William Ho, 39, of Hacienda Heights, California, who was sentenced in March to 135 months in prison.

All five men charged in this case pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to transport, receive, distribute and possess child pornography. They all admitted being part of the Quest4More bulletin board, which was used to distribute illegal images and videos depicting prepubescent children, including toddlers being subjected to various sexual and sadistic acts. The group also posted links to other sites that had images of child sexual abuse. Law enforcement was alerted to the group following the arrest of one of its members in 2008.

Each defendant made hundreds of posts to the bulletin board. Wright, for example, was one of the more prolific users of the bulletin board, making more than 400 posts, although he did not post any pictures to the site.

Wright was sentenced to 10 years of supervised release and the four other defendants were sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release following their prison terms.

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 the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

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