Pittsburgh man sentenced to 6 years in prison for possession of images of child sexual exploitation

PITTSBURGH - A Pittsburgh man was sentenced Jan. 20, 2011, in federal court to 78 months in prison and 12 years of supervised release on his conviction for child pornography crimes. The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Daniel Toler, 49, collected graphic images and videos of prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Before imposing sentence, U.S. District Judge Terrence F. McVerry stated that he was extremely troubled by the defendant's conduct, which included communications with an undercover agent posing as the mother of two children. In his communications, the defendant directed the "mother" and "children" to engage in sexual acts with each other, and exposed himself via webcam.

HSI, the Department of Justice High Tech Crimes Task Force, Allegheny County Police and Pittsburgh Police assisted in the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Toler.

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide 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.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators. Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Soo C. Song prosecuted this case.