Wilmington Man Sentenced on Child Pornography Charge

NEW BERN—United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that in federal court yesterday United States District Judge Louise W. Flanagan sentenced Matthew Bryan Warford, 21, to 180 months’ imprisonment, followed by a life time of supervised release. A federal grand jury returned a criminal indictment on October 25, 2011. On February 16, 2012, Warford pled guilty to transportation of child pornography, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2252(a)(2). According to the indictment on August 22, 2010, Warford transported images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. According to the investigation, in March 2011, law enforcement received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that child pornography had been uploaded to Photobucket.com. Law enforcement tracked the IP address to Warford’s Wilmington, North Carolina residence. While conducting an interview, law enforcement learned that Warford was a registered sex offender from a 2009 conviction.

This case was part of the Project Safe Childhood initiative, a national program aimed at ensuring that criminals exploiting children are effectively prosecuted by making full use of all available law enforcement resources at every level. For more information about this important national project, Project Safe Childhood, go to www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Investigation of this case was conducted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Ethan Ontjes is prosecuting the case.