Essex Man Pleads Guilty on Child Porn Case

A 45-year-old Essex man could face up to 20 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty Friday to receiving and distributing child pornography over the Internet, and possessing thousands of  images of child pornography and hundreds of videos of suspected child pornography.

The guilty plea of Timothy Whitaker was announced by U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland  Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge William Winter of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations and Chief James W. Johnson of the Baltimore County Police Department.

“Child pornography victimizes children over and over again - starting with the initial assault, and continuing everyday for victims of this terrible trade,” said Winter in a statement. “HSI will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners here in Maryland and around the world to ensure that cyberspace affords no protection for those who seek to prey upon and sexually exploit our children.”

Whitaker admitted that he was a member of a publicly available file sharing program, and had multiple images and videos available for other members of the program to download via the Internet. 

On June 2, 2010, a Baltimore County Police detective logged onto the program and downloaded a video depicting the sexual abuse of a prepubescent girl. 

On June 21, Baltimore County Police officers executed a search warrant at Whitaker’s residence and seized two desktop computers, two laptop computers, several hard drives, binders containing hard copies of child pornography and multiple pieces of removable media. 

Analysis of the items seized revealed more than 8,500 images of child pornography and more than 630 videos of suspected child pornography.  These depictions included prepubescent children engaging in sado-masochistic activities and anal intercourse.

Whitaker faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.  He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 22. Whitaker will also be required to register as a sex offender.

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.