Illinois Man Sentenced for Traveling Interstate to Engage in Sexual Contact with a Minor

BUFFALO, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that David Murch, 21, of Schaumburg, Illinois, who was convicted of interstate travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and receipt of child pornography, was sentenced to six years in prison by U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Maura K. O’Donnell, who handled the case, stated that the defendant traveled to Western New York from Illinois for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor and transporting the minor back to his home in Illinois. Murch also received lewd images of the minor, whom he had met online, and developed a relationship with the minor through the Internet and telephone.

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, and officers of the Schaumburg, Illinois Police Department, under the direction of Chief Brian Howerton.