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Man Gets 12 Years In 'Candyman' Child-Porn Sweep

By Steven Bonisteel, Newsbytes
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A.,
09 May 2002, 4:19 PM CST

A Georgia man who photographed his sexual molestation of young boys and then 
distributed the images on the Internet has been sentenced by a federal court to 
more than 12 years in prison.

The punishment meted out Wednesday to 19-year-old Robert William Burford of 
Lawrenceville brought an end to a case that was part of an ongoing Internet 
child-pornography sweep federal officials call 'Operation Candyman.'

Named for an invitation-only Internet group that authorities said was called 
Candyman, the FBI operation had logged charges against 89 individuals in the 
U.S. by March of this year.

Burford, who is unemployed and living in his mother's home, was charged last 
September after using his brother's Internet account to share his pornographic 
images.

Investigators said Burford created the pictures himself after befriending two 
10-year-old neighborhood children and sexually assaulting them.

In March, Burford pleaded guilty to transmitting child pornography in 
interstate commerce by computer.

U.S. District Court Judge Orinda Evans sentenced the man to 12 years and 7 
months and jail, followed by a three-year supervised release.

William Duffey Jr., the United States Attorney for the Northern District of 
Georgia, said that, as part of his sentence, Burford will plead guilty to 
charges of child molestation in Gwinnett County, and for that serve 25 years of 
probation after the federal sentence.

"This case is an outrageous example of the exploitation of one of the most 
vulnerable members of our community - a child," Duffey said in a prepared 
statement.

During a March sweep related to Operation Candyman, at least four other men 
were arrested in the Northern District of Georgia and charged with the use of 
computers to possess child pornography.

The FBI claims that the Candyman group may have had as many as 7,000 members, 
with some 4,600 of them in the U.S.

Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com .

16:19 CST

(20020509/WIRES ONLINE, LEGAL, BUSINESS/)


© 2001 The Washington Post Company


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