A Houston man has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges of receipt and possession of child pornography. Cody Wayne Burke, age 32, entered his plea on April 15 and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal, facing a concurrent sentence for both convictions and will be subjected to a life term of supervised release upon completion of his prison tenure, as the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas announced.
During the sentencing hearing it was disclosed that Burke possessed a substantial collection of child pornography, some of which included images of prepubescent minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and distressing depictions involving bondage and bestiality, Burke will be ordered to pay restitution to victims, amounts to be determined later; he will also have further restrictions placed upon his internet access and must register as a sex offender, an IP address linked to Burke was found to have uploaded these illicit materials to cloud storage servers, a discovery that initially triggered the investigation on him.
According to a statement from the Department of Justice, authorities acted on a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Searches conducted at Burke's residence resulted in the seizure of various electronic devices, including cellphones, which further analysis revealed a total of 850 child pornography images.
Following his sentencing, Burke remains in custody and awaits transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility, the FBI led the successful investigation into Burke's activities; Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sherin Daniel is handling the prosecution of this case, which is part of Project Safe Childhood, a strategic initiative started by the Department of Justice in 2006 designed to combat child exploitation and abuse, the program pulls together resources from federal, state, and local entities to identify and prosecute offenders while also focusing on the rescue and rehabilitation of victims.
