Donald McCoy Jr., 53, of Bothell was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to twenty-four years in prison and lifetime supervised release for production, distribution and possession of child pornography.
McCoy was arrested in October 2016 and has been in federal custody since that time.
“That his sentence was intended to remove [the defendant] from society so he cannot do this anymore.” said U.S. district judge James L. Robart at the sentencing hearing.
According to records filed in the case, McCoy came to the attention of federal law enforcement in 2016, when an undercover agent using peer-to-peer file sharing software observed images of child rape being shared from a computer tied to an internet protocol address that traced back to McCoy’s residence.
After obtaining the address and a court authorized search warrant, law enforcement executed the search at McCoy’s home. Forensic examination of various electronic devices revealed that McCoy had produced images of his molestation of four young children between the ages of 6 and 13 years old. McCoy molested several of the children while they were asleep.
“No sentence – no matter how long — will ever address the harm this defendant did,” U.S. attorney Annette L. Hayes said. “Not only did he commit a horrific crime when he molested young children, but he also harmed other children when he participated in the trading of images and videos of their abuse. I commend the dedication of the law enforcement officers who ensure that offenders are taken off the internet and out of our communities so they can no longer hurt our kids.”
This case was 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 Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood 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 victims.
