Bastrop Resident Pleads Guilty To Attempting To Receive Child Pornography

LAFAYETTE, La. – U.S. Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced that Christopher Wallace, 25, of Bastrop, La., pleaded guilty Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge C. Michael Hill to attempting to receive child pornography.

According to evidence presented at the guilty plea, on January 31, 2011 Wallace began chatting online with who he thought was a 14-year-old girl.  He  asked the girl to perform sexual acts, and Wallace performed sex acts himself on a web camera.  Wallace also asked the girl, who was actually a police officer, to perform sex acts on a web camera.

Wallace faces up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and five years of supervised release.  A sentencing date of January 10, 2014 was set.  Homeland Security Investigations and the Lafayette Police Department conducted the investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorney John Luke Walker is prosecuting the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Homeland Security Investigations/Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at (866) DHS-2ICE.  Investigators are available at all hours to answer hotline calls.  Tips or other information can also be submitted to ICE online at www.ice.gov/exec/forms/hsi-tips/tips.asp. Tips may be reported anonymously.