Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., Man Ordered to Pay Restitution to Victim in International...

Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., Man Ordered to Pay Restitution to Victim in
International Child Exploitation Case

PENSACOLA, Fla., July 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On June 23, 2009, James
Freeman of Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., was ordered to pay restitution to a victim
of child pornography whose images he possessed. Freeman was previously
sentenced to life in prison for his activity in a global child pornography
trafficking enterprise. Today, Senior U.S. District Judge Lacey A. Collier
issued a judgment ordering Freeman to pay restitution in the amount of
$3,263,758, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida
Thomas F. Kirwin.

Freeman, a registered sex offender, was found guilty following a six-day trial
in January 2009 of six counts relating to his criminal activities as a member
of the child exploitation enterprise. The charges alleged in these counts
included engaging in a child exploitation enterprise; conspiracy to advertise,
transport, ship, receive and possess child pornography; advertising,
transporting and receiving child pornography and obstruction of justice.

This restitution judgment is one of the first of its kind in the United
States. At the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney David L. Goldberg presented
the testimony of a forensic pediatrician and a psychologist in order to inform
the court of the long-lasting trauma that child pornography has upon the
victims whose images are taken. Judge Collier noted, "Each and every
individual who possesses and downloads these images victimizes these
children." Though Freeman had previously been sentenced to life in prison, he
has assets from which the restitution judgment can be obtained.

According to evidence introduced at trial, Freeman and his co-defendants were
members of a highly sophisticated international network. The group was a
well-organized criminal enterprise whose purpose was to proliferate child sex
abuse images to its membership during a two-year period. The defendants were
found guilty of participating in an illegal organization that used Internet
newsgroups - large file-sharing networks where text, software, pictures and
videos can be traded and shared - to traffic in illegal images and videos
depicting prepubescent children, including toddlers, engaged in various sexual
and sadistic acts.

Specifically, an Australian constable, who infiltrated the group in August
2006, testified at trial about how group members employed a complex system of
pseudonyms, screening tests for new members and sophisticated encryption
methods to avoid detection. He also testified that the group traded more than
400,000 images and 1,000 videos of child sexual abuse before it was dismantled
by law enforcement.

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. 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.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Goldberg of the
Northern District of Florida and Trial Attorney LisaMarie Freitas of CEOS. The
case was investigated by the Innocent Images Unit of the FBI and the
Queensland, Australia, Police Service, with the assistance of the
Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) Child Pornography Unit in Germany and the Child
Exploitation and Online Protection Centre in the United Kingdom.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice

Dixie Morrow, Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney, +1-850-444-4000, for United
States Attorney Thomas F. Kirwin Northern District of Florida