WASHINGTON, D.C. – A federal judge sentenced an Alabama man today to 160 years’ imprisonment for using internet applications to seek images and live transmissions of the violent sexual abuse of Filipina children as young as five years old.
Benjamin Walter, 41, of Decatur, was convicted by a federal jury on Oct. 5, 2021, of four counts of producing and attempting to produce child pornography and one count each of receiving and distributing child pornography.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Walter used two web service provider accounts, including messenger and webcam applications, to seek women in the Philippines to sexually abuse their own children and relatives. Walter’s requests to these women, which spanned approximately three years, included directions to arrange for the gang rape of young children and to sexually assault several young children in other harmful ways.
Walter sent money to the Philippines for the videos, images, and live transmissions via Moneygram, Western Union, and other money remitters in $25 to $50 increments. In addition to the live webcam shows, Walter also sent and received emails to which the senders attached images and videos of young children engaged in sex acts with adult men. This investigation and prosecution were part of a joint FBI and Homeland Security Investigations operation that targeted the buyers and sellers of these types of webcam shows in the Philippines.
The FBI’s Huntsville Field Office investigated the case.
Trial Attorneys Charles Schmitz and Nadia Prinz of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Leann White of the Northern District of Alabama are prosecuting the case.
