Raymond Man Convicted for Attempted Possession of Child Pornography

 Acting United States Attorney Jan Sharp announced that Nathaniel Walker, 33, of Raymond, Nebraska, was sentenced today in Lincoln by Chief United States District Judge John M. Gerrard for attempted possession of child pornography. Walker was sentenced to 11 years in prison and 10 years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system. Walker was additionally ordered to pay $9,000 in restitution.

This case began when Kik flagged a September 29, 2018 conversation in which Walker and other Kik users discussed an interest in child pornography and Walker shared a link to a Dropbox folder which contained child pornography material.  On March 2, 2019, Homeland Security Investigations conducted a knock and talk with Walker at his residence.  Walker admitted he used Kik about three times a week at night to seek out child pornography.  Walker also admitted that he would share links during Kik chats which he knew contained child pornography, but that he did not own the Dropbox accounts.  He indicated that he shared these links in the hopes of receiving new links from other individuals on Kik. Walker had previously been convicted in 2012 of attempted possession of child pornography in Lancaster County.

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 United States 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.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations.