Contributed by USATXS-Public Affairs Officer Angela Dodge
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Arthur Gregg Hutchins, 67, under supervised release for a previous conviction of possessing child pornography, has been ordered to prison again, announced United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson.
Hutchins was previously convicted in 2005 and released from prison in 2012. He was under supervised release when he pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography on June 24, 2013.
Following a lengthy hearing yesterday, Senior U.S. District Judge Hayden Head considered Hutchins’ demonstrated recidivism and the need to protect the public and ordered him to federal prison for 188 months. The sentence will be served concurrently to a five-year-term of imprisonment ordered for the revocation of his supervised release in the 2005 case. He will also serve a new lifetime term of supervised release following his release during which he will have to comply with numerous conditions designed to restrict his access to children and the internet.
In handing down the sentence, the court noted that Hutchins presents a real and ongoing danger to the children of our community. The court considered the evidence seized in the case – the child pornography as well as written communications between Hutchins and other pedophiles. In those emails, Hutchins claimed to have himself been sexually assaulted, to have personally sexually assaulted children in the past and expressed a desire to sexually assault children in the future. Hutchins claimed that such writings were nothing more than fantasy. However, the Judge rebuffed that denial and stated that society was entitled to take him at his word that he is a person who has and is capable of sexually assaulting children. The court further noted that his almost immediate return to child pornography following his release from prison in June 2012 was a strong indication that he is likely to reoffend.
Hutchins came to the attention of law enforcement from a CyberTip received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding a person who had posted child pornography images online beginning in September 2012. The images were posted to a popular online photo sharing website by a person using an IP address linked to the Corpus Christi area.
The IP address was later traced to the wife of Hutchins. Under supervised release and forbidden to reside near a school, Hutchins did not reside with his wife. The investigation was able to exclude the wife due to her work schedule and conflicting times associated with the online postings of child pornography. An investigation into his online activities and financial transactions, led to his identification of the one responsible for the postings.
At the time of his plea, he admitted to possessing images of child pornography he acquired from the internet.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the Corpus Christi Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC).
Assistant United States Attorney Lance Duke is prosecuting the case, which 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 the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”
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