Urbana, Ill. – A Champaign, Illinois man has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for receiving and possessing child pornography. Chief U.S. District Judge Michael P. McCuskey sentenced Scott Halliday, 36, of Quince Drive, on Friday afternoon, May 28. Halliday was also ordered to remain on supervised release for a period of 15 years following completion of his prison sentence.

Halliday has been in law enforcement custody since February, when a jury convicted him of two counts of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. At trial, the government presented evidence that Halliday received and possessed images of child pornography including approximately 1½ hours of videos collected over a six-week period. Among the images were graphic scenes of young children held in bondage and physically assaulted.

The charges were investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Illinois Attorney General’s Office and the Champaign Police Department.

The 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 United States 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 via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.