Abingdon Man Sentenced to 78 Months Imprisonment for Distributing and Receiving Child Pornography
ABINGDON, VIRGINIA -- United States Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy announced today that Allen Labbe, 55, of Abingdon, Va. was sentenced to imprisonment in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Abingdon for distributing and receiving child pornography.
Today in District Court, Labbe was sentenced to 78 months imprisonment and ordered to serve ten years supervised release following his incarceration.
“This case is another example of our unwavering commitment to protect the most vulnerable members of society, our children,” United States Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy said today. “Images of child pornography victimize the children depicted when they are created, and again and again as they are distributed. The Department of Justice is committed to apprehending and vigorously prosecuting individuals who exploit children in any way.”
According to evidence presented at the guilty plea and sentencing hearings by Assistant United States Attorney Zachary Lee, between March 1, 2010 and March 24, 2011, Allen Labbe utilized peer-to-peer file sharing from his home in Abingdon to collect and distribute child pornography to other individuals on the internet.
In February 2011, members of the Internet Crimes Against Children (“ICAC”) task force in Bedford County, Va. downloaded a known image of child pornography from Labbe’s computer. Based upon this information, a search warrant was executed by the Washington County Virginia Sheriff’s Office on March 24, 2011 at Labbe’s residence on Wyndale Road. This search warrant led to the discovery of multiple computers and media storage devices. A forensic examination of these devices found more than 1,000 images of child pornography and more than twenty movies depicting children involved in sexually explicit activity. Allen Labbe was interviewed by law enforcement officers and admitted that he had knowingly distributed and received child pornography from his home utilizing the peer-to-peer file sharing software.
The investigation of this case was conducted by the Washington County, Virginia Sheriff’s Office, Bedford County, Virginia Sheriff’s Office, and the United States Secret Service. Assistant United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee of the United States Attorney’s Office in Abingdon is prosecuting the case.
