Harrisburg Man Sentenced To 10 Years’ Imprisonment For Child Exploitation

 HARRISBURG - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Robert L. Hayes, Sr., age 74, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on September 21, 2020 to 10 years’ imprisonment followed by 15 years of supervised release by Chief U.S. District Court Judge John E. Jones III, on child exploitation charges.

According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, Hayes possessed images of prepubescent minors under the age of 12 years old on October 16, 2018 and November 20, 2018, in Harrisburg.  Hayes was on federal Supervised Release following a prison term after pleading guilty to a similar federal child exploitation offense in 2007. 

The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the U.S. Probation Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney James T. Clancy prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit  www.usdoj.gov/psc For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."