Eastern District of California | Placer County Man Pleads Guilty to Child Abuse

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Paul Hughes, 41, of Colfax, pleaded guilty today to sexual exploitation of a child, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, Hughes created visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct on three separate occasions between September 2018 and June 2019. Hughes used a cellphone to covertly record at least three videos depicting child abuse material and saved them to an external hard drive. In addition to the videos, agents recovered more than 3,000 images and videos of child abuse material from Hughes’ external hard drive and Google account.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Denise N. Yasinow is prosecuting the case.

Hughes is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley on January 30, 2025. Hughes faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum statutory sentence of 30 years in prison. However, the actual sentence will be determined at the discretion of the court after considering all applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

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 U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Abuse and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to investigate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the Resources tab for information about Internet safety education.