Corning Man Sentenced in Child Pornography Case

ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Bryan Griswold, 22, of Corning, New York, who was convicted of possession of child pornography, was sentenced to 84 months in prison and 25 years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge David G. Larimer.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany H. Lee, who handled the case, stated that in June 2009, an investigator from the New York State Police Computer Crimes Unit was conducting an investigation involving peer-to-peer file sharing of images of children being sexually exploited and abused. The investigation led law enforcement to the defendant’s residence in Corning in August 2009. Griswold admitted that he downloaded child pornography from the Internet using the Limewire peer-to-peer file sharing program. Griswold possessed more than 600 images of child pornography. The defendant also admitted that he possessed sexually explicit images he took of two female relatives who were approximately 2 years old. Griswold further admitted that he possessed sexually explicit pictures he took of three young girls he supervised while working as a child care provider at the YMCA in Corning. The victims ranged in age from 2 and 4 years old.

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 sentence was the culmination of an investigation on the part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Christopher M. Piehota, Special Agent in Charge; the New York State Police Computer Crimes Unit, under the direction of Captain Frank Pace; and the Steuben County District Attorney’s Office.