Ohio man sentenced to 16 years in prison for possession and distribution of child abuse material

AKRON, Ohio (WKBN) — An Akron man has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for possessing and distributing child pornography (CSAM).

David Walker, 39, pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced on Friday.

According to court documents, Walker received and distributed nearly 400 video files known to
contain CSAM and child exploitation. A computer tablet containing CSAM files was recovered
during the execution of a federal search warrant of his residence. Files were described as:
boys and girls of various ages under 17 years old, including babies and toddlers.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, several victims were identified from video files found on Walker’s confiscated computer tablet.

Walker was an active participant in BitTorrent, an Internet service that allows users
content such as images and videos easily. It uses each user’s computer as a mini server to
facilitate computer-to-computer file sharing between users worldwide. The technology
allows thousands of people to download the same files without system crashes, which
made BitTorrent a widely used protocol for sharing illegal files such as CSAM.

Walker will also be on supervised release for 15 years after serving his prison sentence.