Virginia Man Pleads Guilty to Receipt of Child Pornography

WASHINGTON - An Alexandria, Virginia man pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography today in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Assistant Director in Charge Nancy McNamara of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement today.

Kerry Sipult, 51, pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography before Senior Judge Claude M. Hilton of the Eastern District of Virginia.  According to the Information to which Sipult pleaded guilty and to other facts he admitted to in his plea agreement, between Aug. 1, 2014 and Oct. 22, 2014, Sipult used a peer-to-peer program to download, and share, child pornography.  As part of the investigation, the FBI seized Sipult’s computer and other electronic storage devices and recovered over 4,000 child pornography images and/or videos.  Sipult was released from custody subject to electronic monitoring.  Sipult is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 11.

The investigation was conducted by the Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, which is composed of FBI agents, deputy U.S. Marshals, detectives from Arlington County Police, Fairfax County Police, Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, Prince William County Police, Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office, Leesburg Police Department, Alexandria City Police, Virginia State Police and agents of various federal Office of Inspector Generals.  Trial Attorney Ralph Paradiso of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Whitney Russell of the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.