New Orleans man sentenced to 30 years in prison for receipt of child porn

NEW ORLEANS - Russell David Mansel, 58, of New Orleans, was sentenced in federal court to 30 years in prison and a life term of supervised release for receipt of child pornography following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

According to court documents, on Nov. 4, 2009, ICE HSI special agents executed a federal search warrant at Mansel's Republic Street residence.  At that time, he confessed to knowingly using his computer to search, download and save images of child pornography.  He pleaded guilty to the receipt of child pornography charges on June 3.

Mansel was found to be in possession of approximately 130 images depicting the sexual victimization of children.

Court documents also showed that on Feb. 14, 1989, Mansel was convicted of five counts of aggravated sexual battery of a child and one count of aggravated rape of a child, and therefore, faced an enhanced sentence.

The investigation was part of Operation Predator, an ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders, and child sex traffickers. Since ICE launched Operation Predator in 2003, more than 12,800 child sex predators, sex tourists and child pornographers have been arrested.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators by calling at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. For more information, visit www.ice.gov.

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-- ICE --