Alfredo Hernandez Jr., 37, of Bakersfield, was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Anthony W. Ishii to 15 years in prison for receiving child pornography, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.
 
Hernandez will be required to register as a sex offender and serve a lifetime term of supervised release during which his access to computers, the Internet, and minors will be restricted.
 
According to court documents, between June 1, and October 1, 2011, Hernandez received via the Internet still and video images depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Many of the images depicted prepubescent minors, and several also depicted images of violence or sadistic or masochistic conduct. Hernandez also admitted that he had engaged in a pattern of activity involving the sexual exploitation of one or more minors.
 
This case was the result of an investigation by the Bakersfield office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Assistant United States Attorney David Gappa 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 those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the “resources” tab for information about Internet safety education.