GREENSBORO, N.C. – A man who pleaded guilty to receipt of child pornography was sentenced today, announced Matthew G.T. Martin, United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina.

KEVIN SCOTT SMITH, 40, of Lumberton, North Carolina, pleaded guilty on August 10, 2018, to one count of receipt of child pornography. He was sentenced by United States District Judge William L. Osteen, Jr. to 72 months of imprisonment followed by 10 years of supervised release.

SMITH first came to the attention of investigators with Moore County Sheriff’s Office as the result of a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline report made by a cloud storage service provider. NCMEC’s CyberTipline is the nation’s centralized reporting system for online sexual exploitation of children. As a member of the North Carolina Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, the Moore County Sheriff’s Office receives and investigates CyberTipline reports. In March 2018, detectives with the Moore County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant on a residence in Pinebluff, North Carolina where SMITH had been living and placed him under arrest.

“This case exemplifies how excellent federal, state, and local law enforcement coordination can protect our children from exploitation. Thank you to the Moore County Sheriff’s Office for participating in the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force,” said U.S. Attorney Martin.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Eric L. Iverson. It was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse. 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.

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