Crimes Against Children 6-5-12

Wichita, KS
A Canadian man has been charged with picking up a 12-year-old girl in El Dorado, Kansas, and taking her out of state for the purpose of having sex with her, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.

Stewart Kenneth Cody McGill, 20, Bewdley, Ontario, is charged with one count of transporting a minor out of state for the purpose of having sex. A criminal complaint filed today in U.S. District Court in Wichita alleges that on May 31, the girl’s father reported to the El Dorado Police Department that she was missing from home.

Investigators tracked the girl’s cell phone to an area near Potterville, Michigan. At about 2:45 p.m. on June 1, police located McGill’s car on the shoulder of a dirt road in rural Michigan. He was arrested and the girl was taken into protective custody.  Investigators learned McGill had met the girl online playing “World of Warcraft” and had struck up a relationship with her.

Buffalo, NY
 U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Harold N. Hasse, 56, of Lockport, New York, who was convicted of receipt of child pornography, was sentenced to seven years in prison and 10 years’ supervised release by Chief U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward H. White, who handled the case, stated that in June 2009, the Niagara County Sheriff’s Department executed a search warrant at the defendant’s Dysinger Road apartment and seized Hasse’s computer. A forensic examination revealed that the computer contained 266 videos and 118 images of child pornography.

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. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.