LEXINGTON, KY — A Berea, Ky., man, Larry Dale Foley, Jr., 49, was sentenced to 360_months in federal prison on Thursday, before Chief U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves, after previously pleading guilty to producing child pornography.
According to Foley’s plea agreement and other court records, a tip submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, from Tumblr, showed that a blog that Foley owned had distributed 46 images and two videos of child pornography. On January 6, 2020, law enforcement searched Foley’s residence and seized electronic devices that contained child pornography. Foley was arrested and has been held in federal custody since that time.
The devices seized were processed and showed that Foley had produced child pornography of himself and a female minor, in the form of videos and still images. In his guilty plea agreement, Foley admitted to knowing that the images and videos he created with the minor victim were produced using materials that were shared via computer and cell phone.
Foley pleaded guilty in September 2020.
Under federal law, Foley must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence; and upon his release, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for life.
“Producing child pornography is a crime of violence – subjecting the victim to continued abuse each time the file is shared or downloaded,” said Robert M. Duncan, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. “The defendant’s sentence was well deserved based on his criminal conduct. I commend the work of the FBI and the Berea Police Department in conducting this investigation.”
“Today's sentencing is just one example of how seriously the Department of Justice takes crimes against children. For children who endure abuse of any kind, their lives are oftentimes irreparably damaged. The FBI is dedicated to protecting our most fragile population, and we and all our law enforcement partners will not stop until those who attempt to prey on the vulnerable are brought to justice." said James Robert Brown Jr., Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office.
U.S. Attorney Duncan; SAC Brown, and Eric Scott, Chief of the Berea Police Department, jointly announced the sentence.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the Berea Police Department. The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Marye.
This case was prosecuted 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.
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