Manassas Man Sentenced to 20 Years for Producing Pornography of Children in the Philippines

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A Manassas man was sentenced today to 20 years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, for paying women to sexually abuse children in the Philippines via a web camera while he directed and produced numerous images of the abuse.

On April 9, Dwayne Stinson, 53, a communications technician, pleaded guilty to production of child pornography. According to court documents, from at least October 2011 until February 2012, Stinson used an electronic payment service to pay women in the Philippines he was chatting with to sexually abuse children while he directed the abuse. He admitted that some of the children were as young as six or seven years old. The defendant contemporaneously produced numerous screenshot images of the abuse and stored them on his computer for years.

G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and Patrick J. Lechleitner, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C., made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady.

HSI investigated the case with assistance from the Prince William County Police Department and Northern Virginia/District of Columbia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney James E. Burke IV and Assistant U.S. Attorney Whitney Russell are prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the 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.justice.gov/psc.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:17-cr-211.