Lyons Man Sentenced in Child Pornography Case

ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Mervyn Woodville, 58, of Lyons, New York, who was convicted of possessing child pornography, was sentenced to time served (13 months) by U.S. District Judge Charles J. Siragusa.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa J. Miller, who handled the case, stated that the defendant downloaded images of child pornography onto a publicly accessible computer at the Community Action in Self Help Inc. (“CASH”) lab in Lyons, New York. As part of his sentence, the defendant will be released into the custody of immigration authorities, after which he may be deported to England, the country of his birth.

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.

The sentencing is the culmination of an investigation on the part of special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Christopher M. Piehota.