Mattoon Man To Serve More Than 16 Years In Prison For Child Pornography

Urbana, Ill. – U.S. District Judge Michael P. McCuskey today ordered a Mattoon, Ill., man, Joseph W. Hoult, 27, to serve 200 months (16 years, 8 months) in federal prison for distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography.  Judge McCuskey further ordered that Hoult remain on supervised release for the rest of his life following his release from prison.  Hoult will also be required to register as a sex offender. 

Hoult, previously of the 2900 block of Shelby Ave., has remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since his arrest in June 2012 in Alaska.  A federal criminal complaint was filed against Hoult in July 2012, and a grand jury returned a 13-count indictment in August charging Hoult with six counts of receiving and six counts of distribution of child pornography, as well as one count of possession of child pornography, on various dates in 2012.  On June 21, 2013, Hoult pled guilty to all the charges against him as charged in the indictment.

The charges were investigated by the Mattoon Police Department; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations; and the East Central Illinois Cyber Crimes Working Group.

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