Defendant receives 40 years in prison and lifetime supervised release

Alexandria, La.: United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced today that

Oscar Stamper, age 61, of Natchitoches, La., was sentenced to serve 40 years in prison for

receiving child pornography. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Dee

D. Drell in federal court in Alexandria, La. In addition to the prison term, the Judge also

sentenced Stamper to lifetime supervised release.

Stamper pleaded guilty in April of 2012, to receiving child pornography.

Documents filed with the court prior to sentencing revealed that during an undercover

investigation of Limewire, a peer to peer sharing software, law enforcement discovered

prepubescent child pornography images on the defendant’s computer. The child

pornography included prepubescent children being sexually assaulted by adults and some

images which were sadistic in nature. Stamper confessed to downloading the child and

stated that he was the only person in the residence who downloaded anything to the

computer.

Prior to the time that Stamper downloaded the child pornography, he was convicted

at trial of three counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile in State District Court in

Natchitoches, La. The defendant acknowledged that each of those convictions related to

young boys.

United States Attorney Finley stated, “I hope that today’s sentence sends a message

to anyone who thinks about distributing, downloading or collecting child pornography

that there are consequences for engaging in this type of activity. They should understand

that this office, along with our federal, state and local partners, is committed to do

everything we can to protect children. We will continue prosecuting these cases and will

continue to seek sentences that reflect the seriousness of the crimes.”

The case was investigated by the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office, High Tech

Crime Unit, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Luke Walker.

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 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 U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Department of Homeland

Security/Homeland Security Investigations/Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE)

encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity

through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. This hotline is staffed around the clock by

investigators.