Three men pleaded guilty in Charlottesville Thursday to charges involving child pornography.

The cases were unrelated but all dealt with the transportation, receipt and possession of child porn.

U.S. Attorney Timothy Heaphy says, "Protecting our children is the most important responsibility of law enforcement. The child pornography cases presented here [Thursday], and others like them throughout the Western District of Virginia, are examples of the unwavering commitment the United States Attorney's Office has placed on putting an end to child exploitation in any form."

Twenty-eight-year-old Ian A. Zearley of Charlottesville pleaded guilty to two counts, one of receiving child porn and the other of possessing it. He faces between five and 20 years in prison for the receipt charge and up to another ten years for the possession.

An undercover detective logged onto a file-sharing program and traced some images that could contain child porn to Zearley's home IP address. Zearley's laptop and thumb drive were searched and both contained child pornography.

Forty-one-year-old Mark Church of Louisa pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography. As part of a plea agreement, he will be sentenced to five years in prison and 15 years of supervised release.

This investigation began after a friend of Church took Church's computer to a repair shop where the technician found images of child pornography.
Several disks in Church's home also contained pornographic images.

Thirty-seven-year-old Patrick William Kreutzer of Mineral pleaded guilty to two counts, one of transporting child pornography and another of possessing it. He faces the same prison sentences as Zearley.

Kreutzer started an online conversation with an undercover officer posing as the mother of a seven-year-old girl. They chatted about him engaging in sexual activity with the "girl."

During the next three months, Kreutzer sent images of child porn to the officer, both through the Internet and the mail. During the investigation, police found evidence on his computer that he had also sent such images to other people.

A fourth man was sentenced last week for one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing it.

Fifty-three-year-old Daniel Edward Walsh of Staunton faces between five and 20 years for the receipt charge and up to ten years for possession.

The Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force found Walsh had posted at least one video containing child pornography on file-sharing Website. A later search of his computer revealed several pornographic videos and images.

The cases were brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice. The project 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 exploitation victims.